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

John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury

Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware; whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

Character | Invention | Nothing | Truth |

Alexander Ziskind Maimon

The only way to do good deeds without being motivated by the need for approval from others is to reach the level of considering praise and insults equal.

Character | Deeds | Good | Need | Praise | Deeds | Approval |

Ludovico Ariosto

I regret not death. I am going to meet my friends in another world.

Death | Regret | Wisdom | World | Friends |

Franklin Pierce Adams, pen name F.P.A.

Ninety-two percent of the stuff told to you in confidence you couldn't get anybody else to listen to.

Confidence | Wisdom |

John Welwood

Look at our present life circumstances, whatever they may be, as the raw material of our learning... We must stop regarding ourselves as victims of circumstances, and start to acknowledge that we are not here purely by accident. The master within is trying to help us wake up by confronting us with our current life situation, which contains all the lessons we need to learn in order to grow into more fully developed human beings.

Accident | Character | Circumstances | Learning | Life | Life | Need | Order | Present | Learn |

Yorah Daiah

It is especially important to express your feelings of joy when giving charity to a poor person. Show the person you are glad to be able to help him out. Showing displeasure giving charity erases the merit of giving.

Character | Charity | Feelings | Giving | Important | Joy | Merit |

Ansel Adams

No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.

Confidence | Emotions | Man | Men | Right | Spirit | Wisdom |

James R. Adams

The super-businessmen have to a large extent failed to see that the need for morality in the people they practically govern is greater than ever, because social relations are infinitely more delicate and complex in adjustment than heretofore.

Morality | Need | People | Wisdom | Govern |

Yechiel Michel Tukatinsky

Awareness of the inevitability of death need not cause sadness. Rather we can use it to destroy the common worries about inconsequential aspects of life. Many worries are over matters that have no lasting value. When you overcome worry, your mind will be free to think of your ultimate goals in life.

Awareness | Cause | Character | Death | Destroy | Goals | Life | Life | Mind | Need | Sadness | Will | Worry | Think |

Tzu-Ssu or Zisi, born Kong Ji NULL

Sincerity is the fulfillment of our own nature, and to arrive at it we need only follow our true self. Sincerity is the beginning and end of existence; without it, nothing can endure. Therefore the mature person values sincerity above all things.

Beginning | Character | Existence | Fulfillment | Nature | Need | Nothing | Self | Sincerity |

Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom NULL

It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

Character | Day | Force | Money | Need | Will |

Alonzo of Arragon NULL

Old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, old books to read.

Books | Trust | Wisdom | Friends | Old |

W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden

Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.

Opinion | Taste | Wisdom | Friends |

J. L. Austin, fully John Langshaw Austin

Words are not (except in their own little corner) facts or things: we need therefore to prise them off the world, to hold them apart from and against it, so that we can realize their inadequacies and arbitrariness, and can re-look at the world without blinkers.

Little | Need | Wisdom | Words | World |

Francis A. P. Aveling

The really happy man never laughs or seldom though he may smile. He does not need to laugh, for laughter, like weeping, is a relief of mental tension and the happy are not over-strung.

Happy | Laughter | Man | Need | Smile | Wisdom |

Ralph Waldo Trine

One need remain in hell no longer than he chooses to; and the moment he chooses not to remain longer, not all the powers in the universe can prevent his leaving it. One can rise to any heaven he himself chooses; and when he chooses so to rise, all the higher powers of the universe combine to help him heavenward.

Character | Heaven | Hell | Need | Universe |