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

A. J. Ayer, Alfred Jules Ayer

Originality is the essence of true scholarship. Creativity is the soul of the true scholar.

Creativity | Originality | Scholar | Soul |

Eugene S. Wilson

Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles of learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.

Intelligence | Learning | Will | Wisdom | Learn |

Phillips Brooks

You must ask yourself first, what God is. You must see how at the very bottom of His existence, as you conceive of it, lie these two thoughts – purpose and righteousness; how absolutely impossible it is to give God any personality except as the fulfillment of these two qualities – the intelligence that plans in love, and the righteousness that lives in duty.

Duty | Existence | Fulfillment | God | Intelligence | Love | Personality | Purpose | Purpose | Qualities | Righteousness | God |

Tom Butler-Bowdon

Success is not primarily a matter of circumstances or native talent or even intelligence – it is a choice.

Choice | Circumstances | Intelligence | Success | Talent |

Albert Einstein

As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.

Enough | Intelligence |

Tom Gregory

Our society has progressed largely because of our creativity and inquisitiveness – and because we’re competitive. We’re driven by the desire to develop products and services which are more ingenious than what others have put forth. Competition is inherently good, but when it is tainted with excess greed or negative motives, there can be harmful results. How we compete is very important to our Souls.

Competition | Creativity | Desire | Excess | Good | Greed | Important | Inquisitiveness | Motives | Society | Society |

David Hockey

Sentient species think (to the extent that this is possible for their species) and act rationally most of the time. To do otherwise reduces the species chances of survival because their home (the universe) is rationally (i.e., causally) constructed. The universe’s causality binds thinking, language and intelligence together.

Intelligence | Language | Survival | Thinking | Time | Universe | Think |

David Starr Jordan

The infinite expanse of the universe, its growth through immeasurable periods of time, the boundless range of its changes, and the rational order that pervades it all, seems to demand an infinite intelligence behind its manifestations.

Growth | Intelligence | Order | Time | Universe |

Robert Jervis

All too often… intelligence estimates tell us more about interests and foreign policy preferences of powerful groups in government than it does about the other side’s intentions and capabilities are.

Foreign policy | Government | Intelligence | Policy | Government |

Ronald Lewin, fully George Ronald Lewin

The practical value of intelligence depends on the attitude of mind of its recipients.

Intelligence | Mind | Value |

Ronald Lewin, fully George Ronald Lewin

In terms of… intelligence operations, noise is the buzz set up by competing information signals which prevents the essential message from being heard loud and clear.

Intelligence | Noise |

Bibhuti Mazumder

The degradation of our society today stems mainly from the lack of awareness of what is within us. Being ignorant of our true nature, we seek external solutions to the problems rooted within. In our search for security and prosperity we have abandoned ourselves and are constantly drifting away from human values and virtues.

Awareness | Nature | Problems | Prosperity | Search | Security | Society | Society | Awareness |

Charles Edward Merriam

The future belongs to those who fuse intelligence with faith, and who with courage and determination grope their way forward from chance to choice, from blind adaptation to creative evolution.

Chance | Choice | Courage | Determination | Evolution | Faith | Future | Intelligence |

National Conference of Catholic Bishops NULL

Poverty is not merely the lack of adequate financial resources. It entails a more profound kind of deprivation, a denial of full participation in the economic, social, and political life of society and an inability to influence decisions that affect one’s life. It means being powerless in a way that assaults not only one’s pocketbook but also one’s fundamental human dignity. Therefore, we should seek solutions that enable the poor to help themselves through such means as employment. Paternalistic programs which do too much for and too little with the poor are to be avoided.

Dignity | Influence | Life | Life | Little | Means | Poverty | Society | Society |

Flower A. Newhouse

Lack of will power has caused more failure than lack of intelligence or ability.

Ability | Failure | Intelligence | Power | Will | Failure |

Paula Ripple, fully Paula Ripple Comin

Neither power nor wealth, neither education nor ability, neither gifts of creativity nor stores of human energy can insure against the reality that suffering will be our companion at some time during our journey. It is a presence as inseparable from the human condition as food and oxygen are from human life. It is part of our legacy.

Ability | Creativity | Education | Energy | Journey | Life | Life | Power | Reality | Suffering | Time | Wealth | Will |