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

Robert Louis Stevenson, fully Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

To be honest, to be kind - to earn a little and spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation - above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself - here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy.

Character | Family | Fortitude | Little | Man | Friends |

Oliver J. Hart, fully Bishop Oliver J. Hart

Give us the fortitude to endure the things which cannot be changed, and the courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to know one from the other.

Change | Courage | Fortitude | Wisdom |

Temple Bailey, born Irene Temple Bailey

The mother said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength... This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God... I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.” And the children said, “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.”

Beginning | Better | Children | Courage | Day | Fortitude | God | Journey | Mother | Strength | Will |

George Washington

I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the spirit of man and prostrate him in the dust seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character that at times it approaches to sublimity.

Character | Fortitude | Fortune | Man | Spirit |

John Milton

Suffering for truth's sake is fortitude to the highest victory, and to the faithful death the gate of life.

Death | Fortitude | Life | Life | Suffering | Truth |

John Dryden

Want is a bitter and hateful good, because its virtues are not understood; yet many things, impossible to thought, have been by need to full perfection brought; the daring of the soul proceeds from thence, sharpness of wit and active diligence; prudence at once, and fortitude it gives; and, if in patience taken, mends our lives.

Daring | Diligence | Fortitude | Good | Need | Patience | Perfection | Prudence | Prudence | Soul | Thought | Wit |

Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu NULL

Let everyone understand that real love of God does not consist in tear-shedding, nor in that sweetness and tenderness for which usually we long, just because they console us, but in serving God in justice, fortitude of soul and humility.

Fortitude | God | Humility | Justice | Love | Soul | Tenderness | God | Understand |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Patience and fortitude conquer all things.

Fortitude | Patience |

William Hazlitt

A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only gives us fortitude to bear pain, but teaches us at every step the precarious tenure on which we hold our present being.

Action | Danger | Death | Dread | Fortitude | Life | Life | Pain | Present | Danger |

Leo Busacaglia

Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.

Acceptance | Flexibility | Fortitude | Love | Scholar | Understanding | Will | Flexibility |

Philip Massinger

It is true fortitude to stand firm against all shocks of fate, when cowards faint and die in fear to suffer more calamity.

Fear | Fortitude |

Phyllis McGinley

God knows that a mother needs fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul. But because I happen to be a parent of almost fiercely maternal nature, I praise casualness . It seems to me the rarest of virtues. It is useful enough when children are small. It is important to the point of necessity when they are adolescents.

Children | Courage | Enough | Firmness | Flexibility | Fortitude | Important | Mother | Necessity | Patience | Praise | Flexibility | Parent |

Phyllis McGinley

God know that a mother need fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul.

Courage | Firmness | Flexibility | Fortitude | Mother | Need | Patience | Flexibility |

Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL

Let us desire nothing else, let us wish for nothing else, let nothing else please us and cause us delight except our Creator and Redeemer and Savior, the one true God, Who is the Fullness of Good all good, every good, the true and supreme good, Who alone is Good merciful and gentle, delectable and sweet, Who alone is holy, just and true, holy and right, Who alone is kind, innocent, pure, from Whom and through Whom and in Whom is all pardon, all grace, all glory, of all the penitent and the just, of all the blessed who rejoice together in heaven. Therefore, let nothing hinder us nothing separate us or nothing come between us. Let all of us, wherever we are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of day, every day and continually, believe truly and humbly, and keep in [our] heart, and love, honor, adore, service, praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks to, the most high and supreme eternal God, Trinity and Unity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Creator of all, Savior of all who believe in Him and hope in Him and love Him, Who is without beginning and without end, unchangeable, invisible, indescribable, ineffable, incomprehensible, unfathomable, blessed, worthy of praise, glorious, exalted on high, sublime, most high, gentle, loveable, delectable and totally desirable above all else forever. Amen.

Fortitude | God | Good | Lord | Love | Mercy | Mind | Strength | Will | God |

Samuel Adams

Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.

Consideration | Fortitude | Necessity | Rights |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed, but the same means must be approved by both.

Fortitude | Gold | Integrity | Prudence | Prudence | Value |

Thomas Merton

Contemplation in the age of Auschwitz and Dachau, Solovky and Karaganda is something darker and more fearsome than contemplation in the age of the Church Fathers. For that very reason, the urge to seek a path of spiritual light can be a subtle temptation to sin. It certainly is sin if it means a frank rejection of the burden of our age, an escape into unreality and spiritual illusion, so as not to share the misery of other men.

Courage | Fortitude | God | Intelligence | Light | Patience | Power | Sacrifice | Truth | Will | God |

Washington Irving

I profess not to know how women’s hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or door of access; while others have a thousand avenues, and may be captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to maintain possession of the latter, for a man must battle for his fortress at every door and window. He who wins a thousand common hearts, is therefore entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette, is indeed a hero.

Fortitude | Man | Spirit |

Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL

The right of commanding is no longer an advantage transmitted by nature; like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of courage.

Fortitude | Mind | Prudence | Prudence |