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

Obert C. Tanner, fully Obert Clark Tanner

Perhaps the clearest and deepest meaning of brotherhood is the ability to imagine yourself in the other person’s position, and then treat that person as if you were him. This form of brotherhood takes a lot of imagination, a great deal of sympathy, and a tremendous amount of understanding.

Ability | Brotherhood | Imagination | Meaning | Position | Sympathy | Understanding |

Garrett Thomson

We are not merely instruments, either for our own goals or for those of God. This is why it is a mistake to identify the meaning of life with a goal…. This does not imply that our own goals are not and should not be important to our lives… just that they are not the meaning of life in themselves.

Goals | God | Important | Life | Life | Meaning | Mistake |

Frances Wright, known as Fanny Wright

I am not going to question your opinions. I am not going to meddle with your belief. I am not going to dictate to you mine. All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

Belief | Faith | Nature | Question | Reason | Search | Understand |

John Joseph Wright

The basic sense of vocation which once gave meaning and direction to all walks of life has been the causality of collectivism, existentialism and sexualism, three of the moods induced by widespread practical atheism.

Atheism | Existentialism | Life | Life | Meaning | Sense |

Wang Yu-p’u

A person who always makes the way for other son the road won’t waste one hundred steps in his whole life. He who always gives in on a question of boundaries won’t lose even a single section over the course of his life.

Life | Life | Question | Waste |

Niels Bohr, fully Neils Henrik David Bohr

An independent reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.

Observation | Reality | Sense |

Simone Weil

Attachment is a manufacturer of illusions and whoever wants reality ought to be detached.

Reality | Wants |

Roger Birkman

The reality of life is that your perceptions -- right or wrong -- influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place.

Influence | Life | Life | Reality | Right | Wrong |

Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman

It is no longer enough to be smart — all the technological tools in the world add meaning and value only if they enhance our core values, the deepest part of our heart. Acquiring knowledge is no guarantee of practical, useful application. Wisdom implies a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential.

Ability | Enough | Guarantee | Heart | Integration | Knowledge | Meaning | Wisdom | World | Value |

Albert Einstein

Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society. The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil.

Anarchy | Evil | Life | Life | Man | Meaning | Opinion | Society | Society |