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

Eric Sevareid, fully Arnold Eric Sevareid

No man was ever more than about nine meals away from crime or suicide.

Crime | Man | Suicide |

Aubrey de Vere, fully Aubrey Albericus de Vere NULL

It is easy to be honest enough not to be hanged. To be really honest means to subdue one’s prepossessions, ideals - stating things fairly, not humoring your argument - doing justice to your enemies... making confession whether you can afford it or not; refusing unmerited praise; looking painful truths in the face.

Argument | Enough | Ideals | Justice | Means | Praise | Truths |

Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.

Authority | Crime | Destiny | Failure |

Author Unknown NULL

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance."

Argument | Discussion | Ignorance | Knowledge |

Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell

If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based upon faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting or distorting the minds of the young in what is called 'education.'

Argument | Belief | Education | Faith | Force | Reason | Will | Think |

Charles Caleb Colton

The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum.

Argument | Will |

Dick Gregory

There are two kinds of crimes: those committed by people who are caught and convicted, and those committed by people who are not. Which category a particular crime falls into is directly related to the wealth, power, and prestige of the criminal. The former category includes such crimes as purse snatching, mugging, armed robbery and breaking and entering. The latter category includes war atrocities, embezzlement, most political actions, and budget appropriations.

Crime | People | Power | War | Wealth |

Freda Adler

(Rape) is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused.

Crime | Victim |

Freda Adler

It is little wonder that rape is one of the least-reported crimes. Perhaps it is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused and, in reality, it is she who must prove her good reputation, her mental soundness, and her impeccable propriety.

Crime | Good | Little | Reality | Reputation | Wonder | Victim |

George Bernard Shaw

When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport: when the tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity. The distinction between crime and justice is no greater.

Crime | Distinction | Justice | Man | Murder | Wants | Murder |

George Bernard Shaw

Youth is a wonderful thing: what a crime to waste it on children.

Children | Crime | Waste | Youth |

George Santayana

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

Crime | Merit | War |

Henry Miller, aka Henry Valentine Miller

The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself.

Crime | Knowledge | Study |

Henry Sidgwick

Against the formidable array of cumulative evidence for Determinism, there is but one argument of real force: the immediate affirmation of consciousness in the moment of deliberate action.

Action | Argument | Consciousness | Evidence | Force |

Hosea Ballou

Preaching is of much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer to the skeptic. No reproof or denunciation is so potent as the silent influence of a good example.

Argument | Example | Good | Influence | Life | Life | Practice |

Immanuel Kant

Every man is to be respected as an absolute end in himself: and it is a crime against the dignity that belongs to him as a human being, to use him as a mere means for some external purpose.

Absolute | Crime | Dignity | Man | Means | Purpose | Purpose |

Immanuel Kant

There is no likeness or proportion between life, however painful, and death; and therefore there is no equality between the crime of murder and the retaliation of it but what is judicially accomplished by the execution of the criminal. His death, however, must be kept free from all maltreatment that would make the humanity suffering in his person loathsome or abominable.

Crime | Death | Equality | Humanity | Life | Life | Murder | Retaliation | Suffering | Murder |

Jean de La Fontaine

When crime wishes to attack innocence, it can always find a pretext for doing so.

Crime | Innocence | Wishes |