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

Benjamin Franklin

God helps those that help themselves.

God | Wisdom |

Henry Ford

Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind. Thinking without constructive action becomes a disease.

Action | Disease | Idleness | Mind | Thinking | Wisdom | Work | Think |

Anatole France, pen name of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young mind for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

Art | Awakening | Curiosity | Mind | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom | Art |

Francis J. Gable

The thing for which we prepare and which we earnestly expect usually comes upon us. Food is prepared to be eaten; clothing is made to be worn; munitions of war are produced to be used in warfare. Just as truly, preparations made for purposes of peace help to bring about the peaceful condition for which they are prepared.

Peace | War | Wisdom |

Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

The idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the religious system.

Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | System | Wisdom |

Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

To be sure, if it is the purpose of educators to stifle the child’s power of independent thought as early as possible, in order to produce that ‘good behavior’ which is so highly prized, they cannot do better than deceive children in sexual matters and intimidate them by religious means. The stronger characters will, it is true, withstand these influences; they will become rebels against the authority of their parents and later against every other form of authority. When children do not receive the explanations for which they turn to their elders, they go on tormenting themselves in secret with the problem, and produce attempts at solution in which the truth they have guessed is mixed up in the most extraordinary way with grotesque inventions; or else they whisper confidences to each other which, because of the sense of guilt in the youthful inquirers, stamp everything sexual as horrible and disgusting.

Authority | Behavior | Better | Children | Good | Guilt | Means | Order | Parents | Power | Purpose | Purpose | Receive | Sense | Thought | Truth | Will | Wisdom | Thought |

Gail Hamilton, Pseud. of Mary A. Dodge

Men as yet need some help to their imagination. There remains still room for a little illusion. It is better for men, it is better for women, that each somewhat idealize the other. Much is lost when life has lost its atmosphere, and is reduced to naked fact.

Better | Illusion | Imagination | Life | Life | Little | Men | Need | Wisdom |

Ellen Goodman

There is no shower for a woman when she completes the trimester of her life spent as a full-time mother. There is no midwife to help that woman deliver a healthy adult.

Life | Life | Mother | Time | Wisdom | Woman |

Michael Harner

The shaman typically experiences ineffable joy in what he sees, an awe of the beautiful and mysterious worlds that open before him... He is a self-reliant explorer of the endless mansions of a magnificent hidden universe. Finally, he brings back his discoveries to build his knowledge and help others.

Awe | Joy | Knowledge | Self | Universe | Wisdom |

Hermetica NULL

God then, is the source of all things; the Aeon is the power of God; and the work of the Aeon is the Kosmos which never came into being, but is ever coming into being, by the action of the Aeon, and that which olds the universe together is the Aeon.

Action | God | Power | Universe | Wisdom | Work |

Edward Howard Griggs

We crave freedom, but freedom is never an end in itself; it is a means to be used for further aims. Its value lies in the extent to which it can assist the development of life. To possess freedom with no life for which to use it is but the bitterest farce. Life never means complete freedom, and every action and relation is an added bond. Life is to be attained, not through a non-moral freedom of caprice, but through a glad welcoming and loyal fulfillment of every bond and obligation which comes in the daily path of life.

Action | Aims | Freedom | Fulfillment | Life | Life | Means | Obligation | Wisdom | Value |

Sarah J. Hale, fully Sarah Josepha Buell Hale

Those who would enjoyment gain must find it in the purpose they pursue.

Enjoyment | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom |

Heinrich Heine

The men of action are, after all, only the unconscious instruments of the men of thought.

Action | Men | Thought | Wisdom |