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

Gustavo Gutiérrez

The complete encounter with the Lord will mark an end to history, but it will take place in history.

Thinking | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

How little it takes to make life unbearable... A pebble in the shoe, a cockroach in the spaghetti, a woman's laugh.

Enemy | Friend | Will | Think |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.

Future | Right | Will |

Gustave Flaubert

We must laugh and cry, enjoy and suffer, in a word, vibrate to our full capacity... That's what being really human means.

Day | People | Rest | Right |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Life is slippery. We all need a loving hand to hold onto.

Enemy | Friend | Will | Think |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Watch the sunrise at least once a year, put a lot of marshmallows in your hot chocolate, lie on your back and look at the stars, never buy a coffee table you can't put your feet on, never pass up a chance to jump on a trampoline, don't overlook life's small joys while searching for the big ones.

Will |

Gustave Flaubert

The principal thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft.

Will | Words |

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Is the Church fulfilling a purely religious role when by its silence or friendly relationships it lends legitimacy to dictatorial and oppressive government?

Children | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

Awakening | Heart | Old |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Wars are no longer waged by the will of superior men, capable of judging dispassionately and intelligently the causes behind them and the effects flowing out of them. They are now begun by first throwing a mob into a panic; they are ended only when it has spent its ferine fury.

Heart | Light |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

Death | Life | Life |

Gustave Flaubert

There is no truth except in its relation, that is to say, the fashion in which we perceive the objects.

Life | Life |

Gustave Flaubert

We were Red Romantics, perfectly ridiculous to be sure, but in full bloom. The little good which remains to me comes from that epoch.

Day | Work |

Gustave Flaubert

Why was life so unsatisfactory? Why did everything she leaned on crumble instantly to dust?

Fighting | Light | Will |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.

Heart | Light |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe... Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

In any combat between a rogue and a fool the sympathy of mankind is always with the rogue.

Life | Life | Television |

Gustavo Gutiérrez

The future of history belongs to the poor and exploited.

Will | Following |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

Will |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I've learned that it doesn't matter how your husband squeezes the toothpaste, the important thing is how he squeezes you.

Will |