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

Bachya Ibn Pekudah

The earth we live on is so small that even if someone was honored by everyone on our planet it is still insignificant. Also, a person’s lifetime is so short that even if he received honor and approval his entire life, it is so short in comparison with eternity. This is the ultimate success an approval-seeker can hope for, but the reality is that even if you spend you entire life trying to win the approval of others, only a small number of people will know and approve of you. The approval you do gain lasts a very short time and is soon forgotten as if it never was.

Character | Earth | Eternity | Honor | Hope | Life | Life | People | Reality | Success | Time | Will | Approval |

Francis Quarles

The heart is a small thing, but desireth great matters. It is not sufficient for a kite’s dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it.

Character | Heart | World |

Theodor Reik

The small share of happiness attainable by man exists only insofar as he is able to cease to think of himself.

Character | Man | Happiness | Think |

Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, aka Beis Halevi

Fear destroys desires... Even a small amount of fear of the Almighty will remove your coveting.

Character | Fear | Will |

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed.

Character |

Arthur William Symons

No perfect thing is too small for eternal recollection.

Character | Eternal |

Jeremy Taylor

If anger proceeds from a great cause, it turns to fury; if from a small cause, it is peevishness; and so is always either terrible or ridiculous.

Anger | Cause | Character | Fury |

Richard Steele, fully Sir Richard Steele

It is a secret known but to few, yet of no small use in the conduct of life, that when you fall into a man's conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.

Character | Conduct | Conversation | Inclination | Life | Life | Man |

Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

Do you remember how small grains of sand are? Yet if enough are placed in a ship, they sink it.

Enough | Wisdom |

Alain Pen name of Emile-Auguste Chartier

It is a small thing to accept people for what they are; if we really love them we must want them to be what they are.

Love | People | Wisdom |

Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

Simplicity is the glory of expression. The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.

Character | Glory | Simplicity | Universe |

William Wordsworth

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself that either thought or theory.

Action | Character | Thought | Thought |