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

Walter Brueggemann

A newness has begun and it is a newness to the victimized ones. Invited to join are all those who have groaned under the ways of the old kings.

Obedience | Opinion | Public | Tyranny | Think |

Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me... I do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid, it is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol... Do you see O my brothers and sisters? It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is Happiness.

Confidence | People | Spirit | Tyranny |

Walter Lippmann

Football strategy does not originate in a scrimmage it is useless to expect solutions in a political campaign.

Absurd | Democracy | Equality | Majority | Meaning | Method | Opinion | Regard | Rule | Sacred | Sense | Sophistry | Tyranny | Virtue | Virtue | Trouble |

Walter J. Ong, fully Walter Jackson Ong

Thought is nested in speech, not in texts, all of which have their meanings through reference of the visible symbol to the world of sound. What the reader is seeing on this page are not real words but coded symbols whereby a properly informed human being can evoke in his or her consciousness real words, in actual or imagined sound.

Achievement | Age | Attention | Present | Sense | Tyranny | World |

Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.

Abuse | Democracy | Power | Tyranny | Understand |

Vimala Thakar

Self-education begins by watching how we are using the energy and learning how not to waste it through.

Absolute | Action | Care | Day | God | Growth | Life | Life | Meditation | Mind | Need | People | Race | Truth | Tyranny | Will | World | God |

Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL

The best is the enemy of the good. [alternatively: The perfect is the enemy of the good. Or The better is the enemy of the good.]

Government | Tyranny | Government |

Thomas Malthus, fully Thomas Robert Malthus

The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.

Doubt | Society | Tyranny | Society |

William Shakespeare

But thy eternal summer shall not fade.

Blush | Doubt | Innocence | Tyranny |

William Shakespeare

Since you know you cannot see yourself so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself that of yourself which yet you know not of.

Blush | Doubt | History | Honor | Innocence | Life | Life | Mother | Past | Tyranny | Will |

Emma Goldman

Revolution is but thought carried into action.

Tyranny |

Emma Goldman

Woman, essentially a purist, is naturally bigoted and relentless in her effort to make others as good as she thinks they ought to be.

Coercion | Dignity | Effort | Existence | Freedom | Individual | Initiative | Labor | Life | Life | Man | Murder | People | Sense | Submission | Terrorism | Tyranny | Murder | Value |

Ezra Taft Benson

One day in the middle of an important examination in high school, the point of my lead pencil broke. In those days we used pocket knives to sharpen our pencils. I had forgotten my penknife and turned to ask a neighbor for his. The teacher saw this; he accused me of cheating. When I tried to explain, he gave me a tongue-lashing for lying; worse, he forbade me to play on the basketball team in the upcoming game. I could see that the more I protested the angrier he seemed to become. But again and again I stubbornly told what had happened. Even when the coach pleaded my cause, the teacher refused to budge. The disgrace was almost more than I could bear. Then, just minutes before the game, he had a change of heart and I was permitted to play. But there was no joy in it. We lost the game; and though that hurt, by far the deeper pain was being branded a cheat and a liar. Looking back. I know that lesson was God-sent. Character is shaped in just such crucibles. My parents believed me: they were understanding and encouraging. Supported by them and a clear conscience, I began to realize that when you are at peace with your Maker you can, if not ignore human criticism, at least rise above it. And I learned something else - the importance of avoiding even the appearance of evil. Though I was innocent, circumstance made me look guilty. Since this could so easily be true in many of life's situations, I made a resolution to keep even the appearance of my actions above question, as far as possible. And it struck me, too, that if this injustice happened to me, it could happen to others, and I must not judge their actions simply on appearances.

Evil | Freedom | God | Man | Men | Reason | Rebellion | Sacred | Soul | System | Tyranny | Will | God |

Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

Technique is the test of sincerity. If a thing isn't worth getting the technique to say, it is of inferior value.

Tyranny |