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

Joseph Addison

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.

Doubt | Right |

John Ruskin

I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man.

Doubt | Greatness | Humility | Man | Men |

Lewis Thomas

Watching television, you’d think we lived at bay, in total jeopardy, surrounded on all sides by human-seeking germs, shielded against infection and death only by a chemical technology that enables us to keep killing them off.

Death | Technology | Television | Think |

Henri Poincaré, fully Jules Henri Poincaré

To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both free us from the necessity of reflection.

Doubt | Necessity | Reflection |

Laurens van der Post

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.

Doubt | Right |

Margaret Mead

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Change | Doubt | People | World |

M. Scott Peck, fully Morgan Scott Peck

Look solely for happiness, and I doubt you'll find it. Forget about happiness, seek wisdom and goodness, and happiness will probably find you.

Doubt | Will | Wisdom | Happiness |

Mortimer J. Adler, fully Mortimer Jerome Adler

If instead of considering science, one considers wisdom, man's wisdom, it is much more questionable whether as one comes down the centuries from ancient to modern times there has been a great advance in human wisdom. One is entitled to doubt that there has been any advance at all over the ages.

Doubt | Man | Science | Wisdom |

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed.

Doubt | Heart | Insincerity | Life | Life | Man | Self | Obstacle |

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Whatever disagreement there may be as to the scope of the phrase "due process of law" there can be no doubt that it embraces the fundamental conception of a fair trial, with opportunity to be heard.

Disagreement | Doubt | Man | Mind | Opportunity |

Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh

Many people may doubt that finding God is the purpose of life; but everyone can accept the idea that the purpose of life is to find happiness. I say that God is Happiness. He is Bliss. He is Love. He is Joy that will never go away from your soul. So why shouldn’t you try to acquire that Happiness? No one else can give it to you. You must continuously cultivate it yourself.

Doubt | God | Joy | Life | Life | Love | People | Purpose | Purpose | Soul | Will | God |

Norman Vincent Peale

There is not doubt in my mind that mental and spiritual health are the foundation of physical health, harmonious relationships, and a happy and successful life.

Doubt | Happy | Health | Life | Life | Mind |

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Without the slightest doubt there is something through which material and spiritual energy hold together and are complementary. In last analysis, somehow or other, there must be a single energy operating in the world.

Doubt | Energy | World |

Philip Massinger

To doubt is worse than to have lost; and to despair is but to antedate those miseries that must fall on us.

Despair | Doubt |