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

Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

Money, n. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it.

Money |

Blaise Pascal

Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water is enough to kill him But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. the universe knows none of this. Thus all our dignity consists in thought. It is on thought that we must depend for our recovery, not on space and time, which we could never fill. Let us then strive to think well; that is the basic principle of morality.

Dignity | Enough | Kill | Man | Morality | Nature | Need | Space | Thinking | Thought | Time | Universe | Think | Thought |

Charles Caleb Colton

Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future are not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

Age | Future | Happy | Men | Past | Present | Time |

Chinese Proverbs

Endure a small insult and be safe from a big insult; suffer some small loss and be safe from a big loss. When you miss an advantage in a deal, you gain an advantage.

Insult | Safe | Insult | Loss |

Francis Bacon

Some men think that the gratification of curiosity is the end of knowledge; some the love of fame; some the pleasure of dispute; some the necessity of supporting themselves by their knowledge; but the real use of all knowledge is this, that we should dedicate that reason which was given us by God to the use and advantage of man.

Curiosity | Dispute | Fame | God | Knowledge | Love | Man | Men | Necessity | Pleasure | Reason | God | Think |

George Bernard Shaw

It is easy - terribly easy - to shake a man's faith in himself. to take advantage of that is to break a man's spirit is devil's work.

Devil | Faith | Man | Spirit | Work |

Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau

Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly towards an object, and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them - that it was a vain endeavor?

Life | Life | Magnanimity | Man | Object | Sincerity | Truth |

Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau

What is most of our boasted so-called knowledge but a conceit that we know something, which robs us of the advantage of our actual ignorance?

Ignorance | Knowledge |

James Bryant Conant

Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period or other, when they have the time. But the present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own. Past opportunitiesare gone, future are not come.

Future | Happy | Men | Past | Present | Time |

John Stuart Mill

The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it.

Opinion | Truth | Will |

John Stuart Mill

The real advantage which truth has consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it, until some one of its reappearances falls on a time when from favorable circumstances it escapes persecution until it has made such a head as to withstand all subsequent attempts to suppress it.

Circumstances | Opinion | Time | Truth | Will |

Joseph Addison

There are many shining qualities on the mind of man; but none so useful as discretion. It is this which gives a value to all the rest, and sets them at work in their proper places, and turns them to the advantage of their possessor. Without it, learning is pedantry; wit, impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; and the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice. Though a man has all other perfections and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.

Discretion | Impertinence | Learning | Life | Life | Looks | Man | Mind | Pedantry | Perfection | Prejudice | Qualities | Rest | Virtue | Virtue | Wants | Weakness | Will | Wit | Work | World | Talent | Value |

Joseph Addison

Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.

Calumny | Silence |

Marcel Proust, fully Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust

There can be no peace of mind in love, since the advantage one has secured is never anything but a fresh starting-point for further desires.

Love | Mind | Peace |

Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL

We cannot employ the mind to advantage when we are filled with excessive food and drink.

Mind |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The history of man is a series of conspiracies to win from nature some advantage without paying for it.

History | Man | Nature |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.

Behavior | Better | Courage | Good | Joy | Light | Man | Meaning | Pain | Thought |