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

Lord Acton, John Emerich Dalberg-Acton

Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.

Fanaticism | Religion | Wisdom |

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 |

John Wesley

Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason. It is our part, by religion and reason joined, to counteract them all we can.

Character | Passion | Prejudice | Reason | Religion | World | Govern |

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 |

Paul Tyner

For this cause he came into the world; that he might be a witness to the truth; a living, unimpeachable witness of the truth that shall make us free - the truth of man’s religion (reunion) with God, through absolute spiritual self consciousness - with God - with the Eternal, Omnipotent and Omniscient Source and Fountain of Life, “in whom we live and move and have our being,” without whom we are not!

Absolute | Cause | Character | Consciousness | Eternal | God | Life | Life | Man | Religion | Self | Truth | Witness | World | God |

Israel Abrahams

Mostly, reform in religion is rational. But if the religion be already too rational, reform must be emotional.

Reform | Religion | Wisdom |

Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

The true religion commands us to put away all disquietude of heart, and agitation of mind, and also all commotions and tempests of the soul.

Agitation | Heart | Mind | Religion | Soul | 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 |

Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

To abstain from sin when a man cannot sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.

Man | Sin | Wisdom |

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 |

Stephen Samuel Wise

Sharing is the great and imperative need of our time. An unshared life is not living. He who shares does not lessen but greatens his life, especially if sharing be done not formally nor conventionally, but rather with such heartiness as springs out of an understanding of the meaning of the religion of sharing.

Character | Life | Life | Meaning | Need | Religion | Time | Understanding |

Margaret Young, born Margaret Youngblood

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.

Character | Money | Need | Order | People | Will |