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

Leo Baeck

The purpose of prayer is to leave us alone with God.

God | Prayer | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom |

Milo Bail

The central purpose of American education is to prepare man to think and the major challenge facing us today is to keep man thinking.

Challenge | Education | Man | Purpose | Purpose | Thinking | Wisdom | Think |

William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker

True religion is not a mere doctrine, something that can be taught, but is a way of life. A life in community with God. It must be experienced to be appreciated. A life of service. A living by giving and finding one's own happiness by bringing happiness into the lives of others.

Doctrine | Giving | God | Life | Life | Religion | Service | Wisdom | Happiness |

Lyman Bryson

Education is anything that we do for the purpose of taking advantage of the experience of some one else.

Education | Experience | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom |

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, fully Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton

Reading without purpose is sauntering, not exercise. More is got from one book on which the thought settles for definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye.

Knowledge | Purpose | Purpose | Reading | Thought | Wisdom | Thought |

Pablo Casals, fully Pau Casals i Defilló

The first thing to do in life is to do with purpose what one proposes to do.

Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom |

Thomas Buxton, fully Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet

The longer I live, the more I am certain that the difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, between the great and the insignificant, is energy - invincible determination - a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory.

Death | Determination | Energy | Men | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom |

Hermann Cohen

Ethics is the vital principle of Judaism. Its religion aims to be, and is, moral doctrine. Love of God is knowledge of God, and that is knowledge of the ultimate moral purpose of mankind.

Aims | Doctrine | Ethics | God | Knowledge | Love | Mankind | Purpose | Purpose | Religion | Wisdom | God |

Albert Cooper, fully Albert Glen Cooper

Neither piety, nor liberty can long flourish in a community where the education of youth is neglected.

Education | Liberty | Piety | Wisdom | Youth | Youth |

Thomas Dekker

To awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face; to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in the doing of little things, the Ultimate Purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind and courteous through all the hours; to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that goes with work well done - this is how I desire to waste wisely my days.

Day | Desire | Heart | Joy | Laughter | Little | Love | Men | Mind | Purpose | Purpose | Reverence | Smile | Waste | Wisdom | Work |

Cyril Connolly, fully Cyril Vernon Connolly

The one way to get thin is to reestablish a purpose in life... Obesity is a mental state, a disease brought on by boredom and disappointment.

Disease | Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom |

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans

I’m proof against the word “failure.” I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Failure | Fear | Man | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom | Failure |

Albert Einstein

Some political and social activities of the Catholic Church are detrimental and even dangerous for the community as a whole... [e.g.] the fight against birth control at a time when overpopulation [is] a serious obstacle to peace.

Birth | Church | Control | Peace | Time | Wisdom | Obstacle |

Albert Einstein

The aim of education must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals, who, however, see in the service of community their highest life problem.

Education | Life | Life | Service | Thinking | Training | Wisdom |

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans

I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Failure | Fear | Man | Purpose | Purpose | Wisdom | Failure |

Fyodor Dostoevsky, fully Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky or Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevski

So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship. But man seeks to worship what is established beyond dispute, so that all men would agree at once to worship it. For these pitiful creatures are concerned not only to find what one or the other can worship, but to find something that all would believe and worship; what is essential is that all may be together in it. This craving for community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all humanity form the beginning of time. For the sake of common worship they’ve slain each other with the sword. They have set up gods and challenged one another, “Put away your gods and come and worship ours, or we will kill you and your gods!”

Beginning | Dispute | Humanity | Kill | Man | Men | Nothing | Time | Will | Wisdom | Worship |

Freeman John Dyson

There are three reasons why, quite apart from scientific considerations, mankind needs to travel in space. The first reason is garbage disposal; we need to transfer industrial processes into space so that the earth may remain a green and pleasant place for our grandchildren to live in. The second reason is to escape material impoverishment; the resources of this planet are finite, and we shall not forgo forever the abundance of solar energy and minerals and living space that are spread out all around us. The third reason is our spiritual need for an open frontier. The ultimate purpose of space travel is to bring to humanity, not only scientific discoveries and an occasional spectacular show on television, but a real expansion of our spirit.

Abundance | Earth | Energy | Humanity | Mankind | Need | Purpose | Purpose | Reason | Space | Spirit | Television | Wisdom |