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

Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

To be sure, if it is the purpose of educators to stifle the child’s power of independent thought as early as possible, in order to produce that ‘good behavior’ which is so highly prized, they cannot do better than deceive children in sexual matters and intimidate them by religious means. The stronger characters will, it is true, withstand these influences; they will become rebels against the authority of their parents and later against every other form of authority. When children do not receive the explanations for which they turn to their elders, they go on tormenting themselves in secret with the problem, and produce attempts at solution in which the truth they have guessed is mixed up in the most extraordinary way with grotesque inventions; or else they whisper confidences to each other which, because of the sense of guilt in the youthful inquirers, stamp everything sexual as horrible and disgusting.

Authority | Behavior | Better | Children | Good | Guilt | Means | Order | Parents | Power | Purpose | Purpose | Receive | Sense | Thought | Truth | Will | Wisdom | Thought |

Henry Giles

No principle is more noble, as there is none more holy, than that of a true obedience.

Obedience | Wisdom |

Claude-Adrien Helvétius

Every man without passions has within him no principle of action, nor motive to act.

Action | Man | Wisdom |

Benjamin R. Haydon

The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself.

Life | Life | Wisdom |

Frederick Dan Huntington

Holiness is religious principle put into motion. It is the love of God sent forth into circulation, on the feet, and with the hands of love to men. It is faith gone to work. It is charity coined into actions, and devotion breathing benediction on human suffering, while it goes up in intercession to the Father of all piety.

Charity | Devotion | Faith | Father | God | Love | Men | Piety | Suffering | Wisdom | Work | God |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

The nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

Man | Men | Nations | Rights | Wisdom |

Christian Morgenstern

As Syria gave to the world through its kings and armies the principle of world-conquest, world-empire, and world-exploitation. In direct answer and refutation, Israel gave to the world, through the mouth of its inspired prophets, the principle of world-justice, world-peace, world-brotherhood.

Brotherhood | Conquest | Justice | Peace | Wisdom | World |

Baron de Montesquieu, fully Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu

The principle of democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is extinct, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality, and when each citizen would fain to be upon a level with those whom he has chosen to command him. Then the people, incapable of bearing the very power they have delegated, want to manage everything themselves, to debate for the senate, to execute for the magistrate, and to decide for the judges.

Democracy | Equality | Extreme | People | Power | Spirit | Wisdom |

Marshall McLuhan, fully Herbert Marshall McLuhan

Ads push the principle of noise all the way to the plateau of persuasion. They are quite in accord with the procedures of brainwashing.

Noise | Persuasion | Wisdom |

Arnold M Patent

The decisions we have made about life are our beliefs. The principle that we always receive what we believe is relentless.

Life | Life | Receive | Wisdom |

Thomas Paine

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Good | Moderation | Temper | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | Moderation |

Jane Porter

The virtues, like the muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.

Good | Wisdom |

Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.

Blame | Daring | Fortune | Greatness | Guilt | Wisdom |

Sydney Smith

The greatest curse that can be entailed on mankind is a state of war. All the atrocious crimes committed in years of peace, all that is spent in peace by the secret corruptions, or by the thoughtless extravagance of nations, are mere trifles compared with the gigantic evils which stalk over this world in a state of war. God is forgotten in war; every principle of Christianity is trampled upon.

Extravagance | God | Mankind | Nations | Peace | Trifles | War | Wisdom | World | God |

Daniel Webster

The criminal law is not founded on the principle of vengeance; it uses evil only as a means of preventing greater evil.

Evil | Law | Means | Vengeance | Wisdom |

Alexis de Tocqueville, fully Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

As the principle of the division of labor is more extensively applied, the workman becomes more weak, more narrow-minded, and more dependent.

Labor | Wisdom |

Alexis de Tocqueville, fully Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

When a child begins to move in the midst of the objects that surround him, he is instinctively led to appropriate to himself everything that he can lay his hands upon; he has no notion of the property of others; but as he gradually learns the value of things and begins to perceive that he may in his turn be despoiled, he becomes more circumspect, and he ends by respecting those rights in others which he wishes to have respected in himself. The principle which the child derives from the possession of his toys is taught to the man by the objects which he may call his own.

Ends | Man | Property | Rights | Wisdom | Wishes | Child | Value |

Michael Beer

Man’s freedom is his inner worth... His guilt alone can rob him of it.

Freedom | Guilt | Man | Worth |

Edwin Percy Whipple

No education deserves the name unless it develops thought, unless it pierces down to the mysterious spiritual principle of mind, and starts that into activity and growth.

Education | Growth | Mind | Thought | Wisdom |