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

Alister Hardy, fully Sir Alister Clavering Hardy

The very fact that one can conceive [a]… possible solution may save one from being in the pessimistic position of imagining that there can be no possible purpose in the process at all. Such a defeatist loss of all sense of meaning… is one of the tragic outcomes of the materialism of today.

Materialism | Meaning | Position | Purpose | Purpose | Sense | Loss |

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.

Conscience | Cowardice | Position | Question | Right | Safe | Time |

Piet Mondrian, fully Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian

The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.

Position |

John Henry Newman, aka Cardinal Newman and Blessed John Henry Newman

Why should we be willing to go by faith? We do all things in this world by faith in the word of others. by faith only we know our position in the word of others. by faith only we know our position in the world, our circumstances, our rights and privileges, our fortunes, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our age, our mortality. Why should Religion be an exception?

Age | Circumstances | Faith | Parents | Position | Religion | Rights | World |

Patricia Rawlins Robinson

The oppressor must have the cooperation of the oppressed, of those he must feel better than. The oppressed and the damned are placed in an inferior position by force of arms, physical strength, and later, by threats of such force. But the long-time maintenance of power over others is secured by psychological manipulation and seduction.

Better | Cooperation | Force | Position | Power | Strength | Time |

Colin Powell, fully Colin Luther Powell

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

Ego | Position |

Albert Camus

What is a rebel? A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes as soon as he begins to think for himself... He rebels because he categorically refuses to submit to conditions that he considers intolerable and also because he is confusedly convinced that his position is justified, or rather, because in his own mind he thinks that he ‘has the right to...’ Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way, you are justified.

Man | Mind | Position | Rebellion | Right | Think |

Arthur Schopenhauer

The man who has been born into a position of wealth comes to look upon it as something without which he could no more live than he could live without air; he guards it as he does his very life; and so he is generally a lover of order, prudent and economical. But the man who has been born into a poor position looks upon it as the natural one, and if by any chance he comes in for a fortune, he regards it as a superfluity, something to be enjoyed or wasted, because, if it comes to an end, he can get on just as well as before, with one anxiety the less.

Anxiety | Anxiety | Chance | Fortune | Life | Life | Looks | Man | Order | Position | Wealth |

Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee

Theology is an incubus that a humanist can never shake off. He may seek refuge from theism in atheism or from animism in materialism. But after each desperate twist and turn he will find himself committed to some theological position or other. Theology is inescapable, and it is dynamite.

Atheism | Materialism | Position | Theology | Will |

Booker T. Washington, fully Booker Taliaferro Washington

I have learned that success is measured not so much by the position one has achieved in life as by the obstacles he has overcome.

Life | Life | Position | Success |

Booker T. Washington, fully Booker Taliaferro Washington

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.

Life | Life | Position | Success |

Chinese Proverbs

Virtue in a rich person is the ability to give, in a poor man it is the refusal to beg, in a man of high position it is a humble attitude towards fellowmen, and in a man of low position it is the ability to see through life.

Ability | Life | Life | Man | Position | Virtue | Virtue |

Dag Hammarskjöld

The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, who has started upon his quest for the source of his being (Is there a source?). He is still with you, but without relation, isolated in your feeling like one condemned to death or one whom imminent farewell prematurely dedicates to the loneliness which is the final lot of all. Between you and him is distance, uncertainty - care.

Care | Death | Destiny | Journey | Loneliness | Uncertainty |