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

Tom Butler-Bowdon

If you have a single powerful purpose, you will have the courage to act on your ideas.

Courage | Ideas | Purpose | Purpose | Will |

Gregg Braden

Emotion may be considered the source of power that drives us forward toward our goals in life. It is through the energy of our emotions that we fuel our thought to make them real. It is in the presence of thought that our emotion is given direction, breathing life into the image of our thoughts

Emotions | Energy | Goals | Life | Life | Power | Thought | Thought |

Régis Debray, fully Jules Régis Debray

The prime role of a leader is to offer an example of courage and sacrifice.

Courage | Example | Sacrifice | Leader |

Albert Einstein

Science has brought this danger, but the real problem is in the minds and hearts of men. We will not change the hearts of other men by mechanisms, but by changing our hearts and speaking bravely… When we are clear in heart and mind – only then shall we find courage to surmount the fear which haunts the world.

Change | Courage | Danger | Fear | Heart | Men | Mind | Science | Will | World |

Norman F. Dixon

The best measure of courage is the fear to overcome.

Courage | Fear |

Albert Einstein

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty and truth.

Beauty | Courage | Ideals | Kindness | Life | Life | Time | Truth | Beauty |

Carl von Clausewitz, fully Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz, also Karl von Clausewitz

Courage is of two kinds: first, physical courage, or courage in the presence of danger to the person; and next, moral courage, or courage before responsibility, whether it be before the judgment seat of external authority, or of the inner power, the conscience.

Authority | Conscience | Courage | Danger | Judgment | Power | Responsibility | Danger |

Seymour Epstein

How well people manage their emotions determines how effectively they can use their intellectual ability.

Ability | Emotions | People |

Elio Frattaroli

If, as Heraclitus said, “A man’s character is his fate” – that is, if our fate is largely determined by the habitual tendencies of our repetition compulsion-personality – then the power of consciousness is that it allows us to change impulses, we have what Kierkegaard called “the possibility of possibility”: the possibility of having a free choice and the moral responsibility that comes with it. In that sense, the fear of consciousness is ultimately the fear of moral responsibility, because if we own our anxiety, shame, and guilt, and allow ourselves to have full consciousness of emotions that motivate our behavior, then we will inevitably recognize the full weight of our responsibility for that behavior.

Anxiety | Anxiety | Behavior | Change | Character | Choice | Consciousness | Emotions | Fate | Fear | Free choice | Guilt | Man | Personality | Power | Responsibility | Sense | Shame | Will | Fate |

J. C. Hare (1795-1855) and A. W. Hare

Few persons have courage to appear as good as they really are.

Courage | Good |

Adam Lindsey Gordon

Life is mostly froth and bubble, two things stand like stone; kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.

Courage | Kindness | Life | Life |

Os Guiness

Do you have the courage of your desires, or have you always considered your yearnings as idle and unproductive? Do you feel the wonder of existence, your own and that of everything? Does it truly do justice to that wonder to see it as an illusion or as a product of chance?

Chance | Courage | Existence | Illusion | Justice | Wonder | Yearnings |

William James

The part of wisdom as well as of courage is to believe what is in the line of your needs, for only by such belief is the need fulfilled. Refuse to believe, and you shall indeed be right, for you shall irretrievably perish. But believe, and again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself.

Belief | Courage | Need | Right | Wisdom |

Thomas Jefferson

If thinking men would have the courage to think for themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found they do not differ in religious opinion as much as is opposed.

Courage | Men | Opinion | Thinking | Think |

Victor Hugo

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; when you have laboriously accomplished your daily tasks, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.

Courage | God | Life | Life | Patience | Peace | God |

Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward

It takes courage to experience the freedom that comes with autonomy, courage to accept intimacy and directly encounter other persons, courage to take a stand in an unpopular cause, courage to choose authenticity over approval and to choose it again and again, courage to accept the responsibility for your own choices, and, indeed, courage to be the unique person you really are.

Authenticity | Cause | Courage | Experience | Freedom | Responsibility | Unique | Approval |

Jack Klugman

Hope awakens courage. He who can implant courage in the human soul is the best physician.

Courage | Hope | Soul |

John Locke

Fortitude is the Guard and Support of the other Virtues; and without Courage a Man will scarce keep steady to his Duty, and fill up the Character of a truly worthy Man.

Character | Courage | Duty | Fortitude | Man | Will |