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

Elias L. Magoon

Existence was given us for action. Our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel.

Action | Character | Deeds | Emotions | Existence | Good | Worth | Deeds |

Johann Kaspar Lavater

True worth is as inevitably discovered by the facial expression, as its opposite is sure to be clearly represented there. The human face is nature’s tablet, the truth is certainly written thereon.

Character | Nature | Truth | Worth |

B. N. Mills

Dreamers and doers - the world, generally divides men into those two general classifications, but the world is often wrong. There are men who win the admiration and respect of their fellowmen. They are the men worth while. Dreaming is just another name for thinking, planning, devising - another way of saying that a man exercises his soul. A steadfast soul, holding steadily to a dream ideal, plus a sturdy will determined to succeed in any venture, can make any dream come true. Use your mind and your will. They work together for you beautifully if you'll only give them a chance.

Admiration | Chance | Character | Man | Men | Mind | Respect | Soul | Thinking | Will | Work | World | Worth | Wrong | Respect |

Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin NULL

Things only have the value that we give them. [Things are only worth what you make them worth.]

Character | Worth | Value |

Baron de Montesquieu, fully Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu

I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.

Character | Risk | Thinking | Worth |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

The worth and value of a man is in his heart and his will; there lies his real honor. Valor is the strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul.

Character | Heart | Honor | Man | Soul | Strength | Valor | Valor | Will | Worth | Value |

Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn

The true worth of a soul is revealed as much by the motive it attributes to the actions of others as by its own deeds.

Character | Deeds | Soul | Worth |

Posidonius, aka Posidonius of Rhodes or Posidonius of Apameia (meaning "of Poseidon") NULL

A single day in the life of a learned man is worth more than the lifetime of a fool.

Character | Day | Life | Life | Man | Worth |

Barthold Niebuhr, fully Barthold Georg Neibuhr

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.

Character | Faith | Good | History | Hope | Love | Nothing | Sense | Worth |

Plautus, full name Titus Maccius Plautus NULL

Men understand the worth of blessings only when they have lost them.

Blessings | Character | Men | Worth | Understand |

Roy L. Smith, aka Mr. Methodist

As a man grows older, he values the voice of experience more and the voice of prophecy less. He finds more of life's wealth in the common pleasures - home, health, children. He thinks more about worth of men and less about their wealth. He boasts less and boosts more. He hurries less, and usually makes more progress. He esteems the friendship of God a little higher.

Character | Children | Experience | God | Health | Life | Life | Little | Man | Men | Progress | Prophecy | Wealth | Worth | Friendship | God |

Samuel Smiles

To be worth anything, character must be capable of standing firm upon its feet in the world of daily work, temptation, and trial; and able to bear the wear and tear of actual life. Cloistered virtues do not count for much.

Character | Life | Life | Temptation | Work | World | Worth |

Minot Judson Savage

If any young man expects without faith, without thought, without study, without patient, persevering labor, in the midst of and in spite of discouragement, to attain anything in this world tht is worth attaining, he will simply wake up, by-and-by, and find that he has been playing the part of a fool.

Character | Faith | Labor | Man | Study | Thought | Will | World | Worth |

Albert Schweitzer

All work that is worth anything is done in faith.

Character | Faith | Work | Worth |

Julian Stuart

When people have something worth while to live for, they discover that they have enough to live on.

Character | Enough | People | Worth |

John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury

There is no readier way for a man to bring his own worth into question than by endeavoring to detract from the worth of other men.

Character | Man | Men | Question | Worth |

Zeno of Citium NULL

Virtue is worth seeking for its own sake, and not from hope or fear or any external motive.

Character | Fear | Hope | Virtue | Virtue | Worth |