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

Thucydides NULL

With reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me some labor from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eyewitnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other. The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but I shall be content if it is judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it. My history has been composed to be an everlasting possession, not the showpiece of an hour.

Justice | Will |

Tom Hayden, fully Thomas Emmet "Tom" Hayden

The politicians of New York have everything that is necessary to make proper decisions and they will have to live with what happens afterwards. The worst scenario is the politicians covering their eyes and turning it over to the FBI.

Justice | Peace |

William Shakespeare

A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain. Hamlet, Act i, Scene 5

Change | Justice | Man | World |

William Shakespeare

As fresh as morning dew distill'd on flowers.

Events | Justice | Life | Life | Man | Mourning | Order |

William Shakespeare

As 'tis ever common that men are merriest when they are from home.

Justice |

Dalia Mogahed

Muslim women do not regard Islam as an obstacle to their progress; indeed, many may see it as a crucial component of that progress.

Appreciation | Cause | Diversity | Justice | Law | Question | Tradition | Understanding | Appreciation |

William Godwin

The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.

Justice | Life | Life | Magic | Mother | Truth | Worth |

William Godwin

The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.

Cause | Good | Justice | Love | Happiness |

William Godwin

Once annihilate the quackery of government, and the most homebred understanding might be strong enough to detect the artifices of the state juggler that would mislead him.

Better | Conduct | Consideration | Family | Father | Improvement | Justice | Justify | Life | Life | Lying | Magic | Man | Sense | Truth | Understanding | Will | Work | Worth | Vice |

William Hamilton, fully Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Power is, therefore, a word which we may use both in an active and in a passive signification; and in psychology we may apply it both to the active faculty and to the passive capacity of the mind.

Absolute | Ends | Indifference | Knowledge | Reason | Science | Truths |

William Hamilton, fully Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

This may enable us to understand how seductive is the influence of example.

William Hamilton, fully Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

I would employ the word noetic to express all those cognitions which originate in the mind itself.

Meaning | Understanding | Intellect |

William James

In its widest possible sense, however, a man's Self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank-account. All these things give him the same emotions. If they wax and prosper, he feels triumphant; if they dwindle and die away, he feels cast down.

Good | Religion |

William Godwin

There is reverence that we owe to everything in human shape.

Art | Feelings | Friend | Heart | Justice | Kindness | Man | Object | Politics | Practice | Present | Reserve | Will | World | Art |

William (Morley Punshon) McFee

There are some men whom a staggering emotional shock, so far from making them mental invalids for life, seems, on the other hand, to awaken, to galvanize, to arouse into an almost incredible activity of soul.

Men | Warning |

William James

The first lecture in psychology that I ever heard was the first I ever gave.

Mind | Study | Words |

William James

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

Birth | Indignation | Inferiority | Injustice | Injustice | Life | Life | Men | Nothing | Pain | Taste |

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

For the credit of virtue it must be admitted that the greatest evils which befall mankind are caused by their crimes.

Fear | Justice | Love | Men | Suffering |

Elihu Root

Human life is held in much higher esteem, and the taking of it, whether in private quarrel or by judicial procedure, is looked upon much more seriously than it was formerly.

Justice |