Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Louis-Ferdinand Céline, pen name Louis-Ferdinand Destouches

When men can hate without risk, their stupidity is easily convinced, the motives supply themselves.

Hate | Men | Motives | Stupidity |

Louise Hart

Self-esteem is as important to our well-being as legs are to a table. It is essential for physical and mental health and for happiness.

Health | Important |

Maimonides, given name Moses ben Maimon or Moshe ben Maimon, known as "Rambam" NULL

The soul is subject to health and disease, just as is the body. The health and disease of both... undoubtedly depend upon beliefs and customs, which are peculiar to mankind.

Disease | Health | Soul |

Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens

The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury.

Honesty | Intelligence | Stupidity | System |

Marilyn Ferguson

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, our fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if we explore them.

Health | Self-knowledge | Afraid |

Marilyn Ferguson

Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest.

Health | Means |

Milton Friedman, fully John Milton Friedman

The president of the National Education Association was once asked when his union was going to do something about students. He replied that when the students became members of the union, the union would take care of them. And that was a correct answer. Why? His responsibility as president of the NEA was to serve the members of his union, not to serve public purposes. I give him credit: The trade union has been very effective in serving its members. However, in the process, they've destroyed American education. But you see, education isn't the union's function. It's our fault for allowing the union to pursue its agenda. Consider this fact: There are two areas in the United States that suffer from the same disease—education is one and health care is the other. They both suffer from the disease that takes a system that should be bottom-up and converts it into a system that is top-down. Education is a simple case. It isn't the public purpose to build brick schools and have students taught there. The public purpose is to provide education. Think of it this way: If you want to subsidize the production of a product, there are two ways you can do it. You can subsidize the producer or you can subsidize the consumer. In education, we subsidize the producer—the school. If you subsidize the student instead—the consumer—you will have competition. The student could choose the school he attends and that would force schools to improve and to meet the demands of their students.

Association | Care | Disease | Education | Fault | Force | Health | Public | Purpose | Purpose | Responsibility | System | Will | Association | Fault | Think |

Milan Kundera

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer to everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything... it seems to me that all over the world people nowadays prefer to judge rather than to understand, to answer rather than to ask, so that the voice of the novel can hardly be heard over the noisy foolishness of human certainties.

People | Question | Stupidity | Wisdom | World |

Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

Gold | Health | Wealth |

Rabbi Nahum Ward and Shelley Mann

We are concerned about the health of our bodies. We are responsible for taking good care of the bodies that God has given to us. Too much food can be destructive to our systems - especially if it is full of fat and sugar. Tobacco, alcohol, caffeine and other drugs can also be harmful. We eat mostly whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes and nuts. We try to pay attention to how our bodies feel about the food we are eating and to make our meals as nourishing and pleasing as possible.

Attention | Care | God | Good | Health | God |

Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon I

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

Politics | Stupidity |

Nicolas Chamfort,fully Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort, also spelled Nicholas

Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.

Opinion | Society | Stupidity | Society |

Neil Postman

But it is much later in the game now, and ignorance of the score is inexcusable. To be unaware that a technology comes equipped with a program for social change, to maintain that technology is neutral, to make the assumption that technology is always a friend to culture is, at this late hour, stupidity plain and simple.

Culture | Friend | Ignorance | Stupidity | Technology |

People with AIDS Coalition NULL

The People with AIDS Coalition (PWAC) was founded in New York City in 1985 by a group of nine people who had contracted AIDS. The founders were inspired by the Denver Principles, a manifesto adopted in 1983 by PWAs at the National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference held in Denver. The Denver Principles proclaimed the need for self-empowerment and self-reliance by PWAs as well as the necessity of their taking an active role in the formulation of decisions affecting their lives. During thealmost eight years of its corporate existence PWAC became the largest self-help organization of people living with AIDS/HIV in America. Projects developed by PWAC include the Community Research Initiative (CRI), a network of medical doctors and patients who undertook their own drug studies; the People With AIDS Health Group, a not-for-profit buyer's club set up to provide easier access to drugs and other therapeutic substances difficult to obtain; a national telephone hotline; and a newsletter.

Existence | Health | Initiative | Necessity | Need | Organization | People | Principles | Research | Self-reliance |

Nikola Tesla

It is not a dream, it is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive — blind, faint-hearted, doubting world! [...] Humanity is not yet sufficiently advanced to be willingly led by the discoverer's keen searching sense. But who knows? Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and ill-treated in its adolescence — by want of means, by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the strife of commercial existence. So do we get our light. So all that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle. (Tesla at the end of his dream for Wardenclyffe)

Adolescence | Better | Humanity | Invention | Past | Present | Stupidity | Trials | World |

Paracelsus, aka 'Paracelsus the Great', born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim NULL

Every creature has its own food, and an appropriate alchemist with the task of dividing it ... The alchemist takes the food and changes it into a tincture which he sends through the body to become blood and flesh. This alchemist dwells in the stomach where he cooks and works. The man eats a piece of meat, in which is both bad and good. When the meat reaches the stomach, there is the alchemist who divides it. What does not belong to health he casts away to a special place, and sends the good wherever it is needed. That is the Creator's decree... That is the virtue and power of the alchemist in man.

Body | Good | Health | Man | Power | Virtue | Virtue |

Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

Body | Health | Mind | Mourn | Present | Worry |

P. J. O'Rourke

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.

Care | Health | Think |

P. J. O'Rourke

Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have.

Health | People |

Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh

Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them. You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature. Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain. Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness.

Change | Health | Law | Thought | Will | Think | Thought |