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

Gustave Flaubert

Why was life so unsatisfactory? Why did everything she leaned on crumble instantly to dust?

Fighting | Light | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe... Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.

Will |

Gustavo GutiƩrrez

The future of history belongs to the poor and exploited.

Will | Following |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

Will |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I've learned that it doesn't matter how your husband squeezes the toothpaste, the important thing is how he squeezes you.

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

As I stoop to lace my shoe you clout me over the coccyx with a length of hickory (Carya lacinosa). I conclude instantly that you are a jackass. This is a whole process of human thought in little. This also is free will.

Will | Youth | Youth |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

The only obligation I recognize in this world is my duty to my immediate family

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever... I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it.

Will | Learn | Old |

Haile Selassie

If each and every one endeavors to cooperate and work in as much as his capacity permits, our faith rests upon the Almighty God that he would bless the results for us.

Will |

Hal Borland, formally Harold Glen Borland

He who travels west travels not only with the sun but with history.

Will |

Hannah Arendt

If you ask a member of this generation two simple questions: "How do you want the world to be in fifty years?" and "What do you want your life to be like five years from now?" the answers are quite often preceded by "Provided there is still a world" and "Provided I am still alive." To the often-heard question, ?Who are they, this new generation?? one is tempted to answer, Those who hear the ticking. And to the other question, Who are they who utterly deny them? the answer may well be, Those who do not know, or refuse to face, things as they really are.

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

Will |

Hal Borland, formally Harold Glen Borland

To know after absence the familiar street and road and village and house is to know again the satisfaction of home.

Learning | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.

Organization | Will | Trouble | Leader |

Hamilton Wright Mabie

Fair queen, at home there is none like thee, but over the mountains is Snow-white free, with seven little dwarfs, who are strange to see; a thousand times fairer than thou is she. Queen, thou art not the fairest now; Snow-white over the mountain's brow a thousand times fairer is than thou. Queen, thou art the fairest here, but not when Snow-white is near; over the mountains still is she, fairer a thousand times than thee.

Good | Will |

Haile Selassie

Here is our opportunity and our challenge. If the nuclear powers are prepared to declare a truce, let us seize the moment to strengthen the institutions and procedures which will serve as the means for the pacific settlement of disputes among men.

Pleasure | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

What the South really needs is fewer scrub bulls ? on the human level.

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.

Will |

Haile Selassie

All well-ordered and modern states can only base themselves upon Courts of Justice and Conduct of Laws which are just, correct and geared towards the protection of the rights of individuals. Justice is a product of education.

Good | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

Will |