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

Charles W. Eliot

Don't think too much about yourselves. Try to cultivate the habit of thinking of others; this will reward you. Nourish your minds by good reading, constant reading. Discover what your lifework is, work in which you can do most good, in which you can be happiest. Be unafraid in all things when you know you are in the right.

Character | Good | Habit | Reading | Reward | Right | Thinking | Will | Work | Think |

Alighieri Dante

Mankind is at its best when it is most free. This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty. We must realize that the basic principle of our freedom is freedom to choose, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds.

Character | Freedom | Liberty | Mankind | Will |

Sara Davidson

The simple virtues of willingness, readiness, alertness and courtesy will carry a man further than mere smartness.

Character | Courtesy | Man | Will |

Clarence Shepard Day, Jr.

Too many moralists begin with a dislike of reality.

Character | Reality |

Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler

View every difficult situation as an opportunity to grow and we will feel pleasure instead of pain from such situations. Failure to do so will cause you needless suffering.

Cause | Character | Failure | Opportunity | Pain | Pleasure | Suffering | Will | Failure |

Douglas L. Edmonds, fully Douglas Lyman Edmonds

How many of us are waiting for the opportunity to do some great thing for the betterment of our community, forgetting that the solution of the problem requires only the active intelligent fulfillment of individual civic duty. The only things which are wrong about our Government are the things which are wrong with you and me. Democracy is never a thing done; it is and always will be a goal to be achieved. It means action, not passive acquiescence in things as they are; it requires alertness to duty, a dynamic faith, a willingness to give for the good of all. It can live only as a result of loyalty and devotion to its principles expressed by daily needs.

Action | Character | Democracy | Devotion | Duty | Dynamic | Faith | Fulfillment | Good | Government | Individual | Loyalty | Loyalty | Means | Opportunity | Principles | Waiting | Will | Wrong | Government |

Eliyahu de Vidas,

When your property or possessions sustain some damage or loss, work on yourself to accept the Almighty’s judgment with love. Realize you were born without any belongings and you will eventually leave the world without belongings. You need not identify with your possessions since they are not an integral part of you.

Character | Judgment | Love | Need | Possessions | Property | Will | Work | World |

Ivan Chen

If you adorn yourself with the highest virtue, the whole world will follow you.

Character | Virtue | Virtue | Will | World |

William Cowper

A moral, sensible and well-bred man will not affront me, and no other can.

Affront | Character | Man | Will |

Madame Deluzy, Luzy Dorothee

Heartlessness and fascination, in about equal quantities, constitute the receipt for forming the character of coquette.

Character |

Eliyahu de Vidas,

Set aside an amount of money that you will give away if you become angry. Be sure it is a sufficient amount of money to make you think twice before becoming angry.

Character | Money | Will | Think |

Cyrus the Great, aka Cyrus the Elder, Cyrus II or Cyrus of Persia NULL

All men have their frailties; and whoever looks for a friend without imperfections, will never find what he seeks. We love ourselves notwithstanding our faults, and we ought to love our friends in like manner.

Character | Frailties | Friend | Looks | Love | Men | Will | Friends |

Maria Edgeworth

We may make our future by the best use of the present. There is no moment like the present; not only so, but, moreover, there is no moment at all, that is; no instant force and energy, but in the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards.

Character | Energy | Force | Future | Hope | Man | Present | Will |

Elizabeth F. Ellet, fully Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet

The pang that wrings the heart to-day, time’s touch will heal to-morrow.

Character | Day | Heart | Time | Will |

Henry Pomeroy Davison

The simple virtues of willingness, readiness, alertness and courtesy will carry a young man farther than mere smartness.

Character | Courtesy | Man | Will |

Orville Dewey

How many a knot of mystery and misunderstanding would be untied by one word spoken in simple and confiding truth of heart! How many a solitary place would be made glad if love were there, and how many a dark dwelling would be filled with light!

Character | Circumstances | Existence | Future | Life | Life | Love | Mystery | Teach | Truth |

Dubner Magid, name for Rabbi Jacob ben wolf Krantz

A major cause of many people’s sadness is their lack of attaining things they could live without.

Cause | Character | People | Sadness |

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans

The human soul is hospitable, and will entertain conflicting sentiments and contradictory opinions with much impartiality.

Character | Impartiality | Soul | Will |