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

Philo, aka Philo of Alexandria, Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew NULL

The rout and destruction of the passions, while a good, is not the ultimate good; the discovery of Wisdom is the surpassing good. When this is found, all the people will sing.

Character | Discovery | Good | People | Will | Wisdom | Discovery |

Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Norris

The People have the right to the Truth as they have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not right that they be exploited and deceived with false views of life, false characters, false sentiment, false morality, false history, false philosophy, false emotions, false heroism, false notions of self-sacrifice, false views of religion , of duty, of conduct and manners.

Character | Conduct | Duty | Emotions | History | Liberty | Life | Life | Manners | Morality | People | Philosophy | Religion | Right | Sacrifice | Self | Self-sacrifice | Sentiment | Truth |

Rabbi Eliezer ben Isaac Papo, aka "ha-Kosesh" or "The Saint"

A person once came into a room where a few people were sleeping. The sleepers were dreaming nightmares and cried in their sleep. The person who was awake did not join them in their crying for he realized it was merely a dream. Similarly, I realize this world is like a dream. People upset over worldly matters are as in the midst of a nightmare. I am awake and am cognizant of how illusory worldly suffering really is.

Character | People | Suffering | World |

Bachya Ibn Pekudah

Many people fail to enjoy what they have because they keep desiring what they lack. As soon as they obtain one thing, they automatically seek to acquire something else. All the good things they already have are considered as unimportant in their eyes.

Character | Good | People |

Abbé Raynal

The world is governed by three things - wisdom, authority, and appearance. Wisdom for thoughtful people, authority for rough people, and appearances for the great mass of superficial people who can look only at the outside.

Appearance | Authority | Character | People | Wisdom | World |

W. D. Ross, fully Sir William David Ross

It would be a mistake to found a natural science on ‘what we really think’ ... opinions are interpretations, and often misinterpretations, of sense-experience; and the man of science must appeal from these to sense-experience itself, which furnishes his real data. In ethics no such appeal is possible... the moral convictions of thoughtful and well-educated people are the data of ethics just as sense-perceptions are the data of a natural science.

Character | Convictions | Ethics | Experience | Man | Mistake | People | Science | Sense |

Quintilian, fully Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, also Quintillian and Quinctilian NULL

Many good people admire what is bad, but no one condemns what is good.

Character | Good | People |

Nicholas Rescher

One cannot properly appreciate the human realities so long as one labors under the adolescent delusion that people get the fates they deserve.

Character | Delusion | People |

Arthur Rubenstein

I must accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.

Character | Life | Life | People | Happiness |

Nancy Reagan, born Anne Frances Robbins

Love means giving one’s self to another person fully, not just physically. When two people really love each other, this helps them to stay alive and grow. One must be loved to grow. Love’s such a precious and fragile thing that when it comes we have to hold on tightly. And when it comes, we’re very lucky because for some it never comes at all. If you have love, you’re wealthy in a way that can never be measured.

Character | Giving | Love | Means | People | Self |

Albert Schweitzer

Only by means of reverence for life can we establish a spiritual and human relationship with both people and all living creatures within our reach.

Character | Life | Life | Means | People | Relationship | Reverence |