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

Patrick Hannay

The wise man's tongue is ever in his heart; the fool's heart's in his tongue.

Heart | Man | Wisdom | Wise |

Philip G. Hamerton, fully Philip Gilbert Hamerton

Among the many advantages of experience, one of the most valuable is that we come to know the range of our own powers, and if we are wise we keep contentedly within them.

Experience | Wisdom | Wise |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When you praise someone you call yourself his equal.

Praise | Wisdom |

Carlo Goldoni

A wise traveler never despises his own country.

Wisdom | Wise |

Thomas Hobbes

Such is the nature of men that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned, yet they will hardly believe they may be many so wise as themselves.

Men | Nature | Will | Wisdom | Wise |

Fannie Hurst

It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man clever enough not to.

Cynic | Enough | Man | Wisdom | Wise |

David Hume

It is harder to avoid censure than to gain applause; for this may be done by one great or wise action in an age. But to escape censure a man must pass his whole life without saying or doing one ill or foolish thing.

Action | Age | Applause | Censure | Life | Life | Man | Wisdom | Wise |

Will Herberg

Democracy is predicated not on faith in man but on the conviction... that no man is good enough or wise enough to be entrusted with irresponsible power over his fellow-men.

Democracy | Enough | Faith | Good | Man | Men | Power | Wisdom | Wise |

Thomas Hobbes

Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.

Men | Money | Wisdom | Wise | Words |

William Ralph Inge

The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.

Man | Wisdom | Wise | Value |

William Ralph Inge

The wisdom of the wise is an uncommon degree of common sense.

Common Sense | Sense | Wisdom | Wise |

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who, in the midst of just provocation to anger, instantly finds the fit word which settles all around him in silence is more than wise or just; he is, were he a beggar, of more than royal blood, he is of celestial descent.

Anger | Silence | Wisdom | Wise |

James Alfred Langford

A wise man will select his books, for he would not wish to class them all under the sacred name of friends. Some can be accepted only as acquaintances. The best books of all kinds are taken to the heart, and cherished as his most precious possessions. Others to be chatted with for a time, to spend a few pleasant hours with and laid aside, but not forgotten.

Books | Heart | Man | Possessions | Sacred | Time | Will | Wisdom | Wise |

Alain de Lille (or Alanus ab Insulis)

A wise man reflects before he speaks. A fool speaks, and then reflects on what he has uttered.

Man | Wisdom | Wise |