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

Thomas Hobbes

The secret thoughts of a man run over all things holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame, or blame; which verbal discourse cannot do, farther than the judgment shall approve of the time, place and persons.

Blame | Character | Grave | Judgment | Light | Man | Shame | Time |

Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland

It is not a question how much a man knows, but what use he makes of what he knows; not a question of what he has acquired, but how he has been trained, but of what he is, and what he can do.

Character | Man | Question |

Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland

Every man’s power have relation to some kind of work; and whenever he finds that kind of work which we can do best - that to which his powers are best adapted - he finds that which will give him the best development, and that by which he can best build up, or make, his manhood.

Character | Man | Power | Will | Work |

Henry Home, Lord Kames

A great mind will neither give an affront, nor bear it.

Affront | Character | Mind | Will |

Edwin Paxton Hood

Be as careful of the books you read as the company you keep. Your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.

Books | Character | Will |

Sidney Greenberg

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.

Character | Man |

Robert Hall

The best ground untilled, soonest runs out into rank weeds. A man of knowledge that is negligent or uncorrected, cannot but grow wild and godless.

Character | Knowledge | Man | Rank |

Robert Hall

The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbor; the angry man hath not himself.

Character | God | Man |

B. F. Harris

Show me the business man or institution not guided by the sentiment and service; by the idea that "he profits most who serves best" and I will show you a man or an outfit that is dead and dying.

Business | Character | Man | Sentiment | Service | Will | Business |

Frederick Henry Hedge

Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own future, and he inherits his own past.

Character | Future | Man | Past |

Claude-Adrien Helvétius

When a miser contents himself with giving nothing, and saving what he has got, and is in others respects guilty of no injustice, he is, perhaps, of all bad men the least injurious to society; the evil he does is properly nothing more than the omission of the good he might do. If, of all the vices, avarice is the most generally detested, it is the effect of an avidity common to all men; it is because men hate those from whom they can expect nothing. The greedy misers rail at sordid misers.

Avarice | Character | Evil | Giving | Good | Hate | Injustice | Injustice | Men | Nothing | Society | Guilty |

Aaron Hill

Shun fear, it is the ague of the soul! a passion man created for himself - for sure that cramp of nature could not dwell in the warm realms of glory.

Character | Fear | Glory | Man | Nature | Passion | Soul |

Carl Holmes

A happy life is made up of little things in which smiles and small favors are given habitually. A gift sent, a letter written, a call made, a recommendation given, transportation provided, a cake made, a book lent, a check sent - things which are done without hesitation. Kindness isn't sacrifice so much as it is being considerate for the feelings of others, sharing happiness, the unselfish thought, the spontaneous and friendly act, forgetfulness of our own present interests.

Character | Feelings | Forgetfulness | Happy | Kindness | Life | Life | Little | Present | Sacrifice | Thought |

Horace, full name Quintus Horatius Flaccus NULL

Govern your passions or otherwise they will govern you.

Character | Will | Govern |

Hayim Greenberg

Security and equality cannot bring man happiness.. but they can bring him something no less important - dignity - a sense of social value and individual worth.

Character | Dignity | Equality | Important | Individual | Man | Security | Sense | Worth | Value |

Charles Montagu Halifax, 1st Earl of Halifax, Lord Halifax

He that leaveth nothing to chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things.

Chance | Character | Nothing | Will |

Benjamin R. Haydon

No man, perhaps, is so wicked as to commit evil for its own sake. Evil is generally committed under the hope of some advantage the pursuit of virtue seldom obtains. Yet the most successful result of the most virtuous heroism is never without its alloy.

Character | Evil | Hope | Man | Virtue | Virtue |

Claude-Adrien Helvétius

There is but one man who can believe himself free from envy; and it is he who has never examined his own heart.

Character | Envy | Heart | Man |

Thomas Hobbes

Our nature is inseparable from desires, and the very word “desire” (the craving for something not possessed) implies that our present felicity is not complete.

Character | Desire | Nature | Present |