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

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Democracy is the pathetic belief in the wisdom of collective ignorance.

Work |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

To believe that Russia has got rid of the evils of capitalism takes a special kind of mind. It is the same kind that believes that a Holy Roller has got rid of sin.

Work |

Haile Selassie

He who would be a leader must pay the price in self-discipline and moral restraints. This details the correction and improvement of his personal character, the checking of passions and desires and an exemplary control of one's bodily needs and desires.

Work |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

We must be willing to pay a price for freedom.

Ends |

Hans Albrecht Bethe

As the Director of the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos, I participated at the most senior level in the World War II Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic weapons. Now, at age 88, I am one of the few remaining such senior persons alive. Looking back at the half century since that time, I feel the most intense relief that these weapons have not been used since World War II, mixed with the horror that tens of thousands of such weapons have been built since that time?one hundred times more than any of us at Los Alamos could ever have imagined. Today we are rightly in an era of disarmament and dismantlement of nuclear weapons. But in some countries nuclear weapons development still continues. Whether and when the various Nations of the World can agree to stop this is uncertain. But individual scientists can still influence this process by withholding their skills. Accordingly, I call on all scientists in all countries to cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons.

Ends |

Hans Rosling

If you have democracy, people will vote for washing machines. They love them!

Work |

Italian Proverbs

The dying cannot leave their wisdom or experience to their heirs.

Art | Control | Work | Art |

Italian Proverbs

No good lawyer ever goes to court himself.

Ability | Balance | Technology | Work |

Italian Proverbs

Saying is one thing, doing another.

Goals | People | Pleasure | Progress | Success | Work |

Italian Proverbs

The ass does not know the worth of this tail till he has lost it.

Books | Character | Effort | Hope | Judgment | Will | Work | Realism |

Italian Proverbs

One who makes his bed must lie in it.

Determination | People | Will | Work |

Italian Proverbs

The devil is bad because he is old.

Ability | Age | Art | Control | Culture | Humor | Memory | Need | Time | Work | World | Art |

Italian Proverbs

The sun is still beautiful, though ready to set.

Wants | Work |

Italian Proverbs

Two women and a goose make a market.

Doubt | Irony | Life | Life | Means | Need | Plenty | Self | Superiority | Understanding | Work | World | Afraid |

Italian Proverbs

The same fire purifies gold and consumes straw.

Vision | Work |

Italian Proverbs

Very seldom does any good thing arise but there comes an ugly phantom of a caricature of it.

Birth | Childhood | Death | Irony | Paradox | Religion | Time | Work |

Italian Proverbs

There is never enough where nought is left.

Better | Change | Motives | Work | Understand |

Italian Proverbs

The sick man sleeps when the debtor cannot.

Global | Sense | Work |

Italian Proverbs

Where passion is high, reason is low.

Proverbs | Work |

Italian Proverbs

There is no rule without an exception.

People | Work | Think |