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

William Havard

Be honest poverty thy boasted wealth; so shall thy friendships be sincere, tho' few so shall thy sleep be sound, thy waking cheerful.

Men |

William James

My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.

Change | Evil | Fear | Good | Men |

William James

Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that ensures the successful outcome of the venture.

Method |

William James

Give up the feeling of responsibility, let go your hold, resign the care of your destiny to higher powers, be genuinely indifferent as to what becomes of it all and you will find not only that you gain a perfect inward relief, but often also, in addition, the particular goods you sincerely thought you were renouncing.

Attention | Genius | Men | Power |

William James

I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible.

Day | Despair | Doubt | Fear | Judgment | Men | Mortal | Reserve | Truth |

William Law

God seeth different abilities and frailties of men, which may move His goodness to be merciful to their different improvements in virtue.

God | Good | Life | Life | Men | Nature | Obedience | People | Present | Soul | Strength | Work | God |

William Law

We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another.

Age | Association | Example | Heart | History | Human nature | Liberty | Life | Life | Men | Mind | Nature | Nothing | Regard | Association | Think |

William James

Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

Man | Men | People |

William James

The difference between a good man and a bad man is the choice of cause.

Civilization | Corruption | Day | Genius | Good | Knowing | Men | Nations | Need | People | Temper |

William James

Whatever is beyond this narrow rational consciousness we mistake for our only consciousness.

Courage | Men | Nations | Need | Valor | Valor |

William Law

Now since our eternal state is as certainly ours, as our present state; since we are as certainly to live forever, as we now live at all; it is plain, that we cannot judge of the value of any particular time, as to us, but by comparing it to that eternal duration, for which we are created.

Blame | Care | Earnestness | God | Love | Man | Men | Mind | Nothing | Spirit | Wise | God |

William Matthews

The common idea that success spoils people making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary, it makes them for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. Failure makes people cruel and bitter.

Means | Men | Privilege |

William (Morley Punshon) McFee

There are some men whom a staggering emotional shock, so far from making them mental invalids for life, seems, on the other hand, to awaken, to galvanize, to arouse into an almost incredible activity of soul.

Men | Warning |

William James

Religion is either a dull habit or an acute fever.

Individual | Men |

William James

The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

God | Little | Men | Opinion | God |

William James

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Example | Experience | God | Men | Mysticism | Passion | Philosophy | Power | Soul | Unique | God |

William James

We keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs, as we can.

Fighting | Human race | Imagination | Men | Opinion | Peace | Public | Race | Thought | War | Thought |

William Law

Nothing hath separated us from God but our own will, or rather our own will is our separation from God.

Beginning | Day | Desire | Good | Growth | Heart | Life | Life | Method | Nothing | Prayer | Wonder | Vice |

William (Morley Punshon) McFee

There is far too much talk of love and grief benumbing the faculties, turning the hair gray, and destroying a man's interest in his work. Grief has made many a man look younger.

Men |

William Law

The one supreme, unchangeable rule of love, which is a law to all intelligent beings of all worlds and will be a law to all eternity, is this, viz., that God alone is to be loved for Himself, and all other beings only in Him and for Him. Whatever intelligent creature lives not under this rule of love is so far fallen from the order of his creation, and is, till he returns to this eternal law of love, an apostate from God and incapable of the kingdom of Heaven. Now, if God is alone to be loved for Himself, then no creature is to be loved for itself; and so all self-love in every creature is absolutely condemned. And if all created beings are only to be loved in and for God, then my neighbor is to be loved as I love myself, and I am only to love myself as I love my neighbor or any other created being that is, only in and for God.

Earth | Heaven | Men | Obedience |