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

Feisal Abdul Rauf

The world wants to like America.

Ideals | Vision | World |

Felix Adler

A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered.

History | Nothing | Thought | Tradition | World | Loss | Think | Thought | Understand |

Felix Adler

It has been said that the modern world is divided between the hot and hasty pursuit of affairs in the hours of labor, and the no less eager chase of pleasure in the hours of leisure. But even our pleasures are calculated and business like. We measure our enjoyments by the sum expended. Our salons are often little better than bazaars of fashion.

Aid | Order | Will | Work | World |

Ezra Taft Benson

Clean hearts and healthful food, exercise, early sleep and fresh air, wholesome recreation and meditation combined with optimism that comes from fighting for the right and knowing you'll eventually win for keeps - this is the tonic every true Christian patriot needs and deserves.

World |

Ezra Taft Benson

For years we have heard of the role the elders could play in saving the Constitution from total destruction. But how can the elders be expected to save it if they have not studied it and are not sure if it is being destroyed or what is destroying it? An informed patriotic gentile was dumbfounded when he heard of Joseph Smith’s reported prophecy regarding the mission our elders could perform in saving the Constitution. He lived in a Mormon community with nice people who were busily engaged in other activities but who had little concern in preserving their freedom. He wondered if maybe a letter should not be sent to President McKay, urging him to release some of the elders from their present Church activities so there would be a few who could help step forward to save the Constitution. Now it is not so much a case of a man giving up all his other duties to fight for freedom, as it is a case of a man getting his life in balance so he can discharge all of his God-given responsibilities. And of all these responsibilities President McKay has said that we have “no greater immediate responsibility” than “to protect the freedom vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.” There is no excuse that can compensate for the loss of liberty. Satan is anxious to neutralize the inspired counsel of the Prophet and hence keep the priesthood off balance, ineffective and inert in the fight for freedom. He does this through diverse means, including the use of perverse reasoning. . . The cause of freedom is a most basic part of our religion. Our position on freedom helped get us to this earth and it can make the difference as to whether we get back home or not.

Fear | Hope | Work | World | Leader |

Ezra Taft Benson

In the work of the Lord there should be no serious mistakes. The most important point of your planning should be on your knees.

Pride | Relationship |

Feisal Abdul Rauf

There are always people who will - who will do peculiar things and think that they are doing things in the name of their religion.

Wants | World |

Ezra Taft Benson

If a man does not control his temper, it is a sad admission that he is not in control of his thoughts. He then becomes a victim of his own passions and emotions, which lead him to actions that are totally unfit for civilized behavior, let alone behavior for a priesthood holder.

Family | Freedom | God | Government | Guidance | Heaven | History | Individual | Inspiration | Land | Liberty | Man | Men | Mission | Morality | Need | Providence | Religion | Right | Sacred | World | Worship | Government | Guidance | God | Child |

Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Capitalism seems to have failed and is now stigmatized as greed. A reaction against individual excess is driving the world back to collective values. Fear of terror overrides rights; fear of slumps subverts free markets. Consumption levels and urbanization are simply unsustainable at recent rates in the face of environmental change. The throwaway society is headed for the trash heap. People who sense that modernity is ending proclaim a postmodern age.

Age | Dynamic | Magic | World |

Felix Adler

Few are there that will leave the secure seclusion of the scholar's life, the peaceful walks of literature and learning, to stand out a target for the criticism of unkind and hostile minds.

Good | Human race | Progress | Race | Religion | Space | Will | World |

Ezra Taft Benson

And if the time should come when you are associated with groups that take delight in tearing down our American way of life, then they seem to enjoy pointing out the weaknesses of our free enterprise system – and it has weaknesses; it has weaknesses because it’s operated by men and women who are full of weaknesses – but when those times come, when our system is criticized, just keep in mind the fruits of the system, the great blessings that have come to us because of our American way of life. No group of people have ever attained the standard of living which is ours. And so let’s become acquainted with what has been accomplished. It’s all right to criticize; it’s all right to try and improve our American way of life; but in doing so, let’s not surrender, let’s not give up, let’s not jeopardize that system which has made America great.

Character | Man | Woman | Wrong |

Ezra Taft Benson

It is a part of my religious belief that America is a land choice above all others, that we are not just another of the family of nations, but that we have been singled out to perform a divine mission for liberty-loving people everywhere. Those who founded this republic were wise men raised up by our Father in heaven to perform that very task, and the Constitution of this land was inspired by God. We have a divine duty — even a destiny — to preserve that Constitution from destruction and hold it aloft to the world.

Important | Lord | Work |

Ezra Taft Benson

Unless we do his teachings, we do not demonstrate faith in him.

Capacity | Children | Free enterprise | People | System | Will | World |

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Any organization or any individual that targets civilians and kills them for political agenda is a terrorist organization.

Arrogance | Belief | Play | Truth | World |

Feisal Abdul Rauf

The ultimate vision is to instate in the Muslim world the notion of multiculturalism, which is part of our heritage and history, part of the fundamental, mainstream ideals of Islam.

Argument | Earth | Faith | People | Religion | Tradition | Truth | Wrong |

Ezra Taft Benson

The tenth plank in Karl Marx's Manifesto for destroying our kind of civilization advocated the establishment of free education for all children in public schools. There were several reasons why Marx wanted government to run the schools.…one of them [was that] ‘It is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right of excluding from public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he that believes least must give way to him that believes absolutely nothing, no matter in how small a minority the atheists or agnostics may be.’ It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of national popular education will be the most efficient and widespread instrument for the propagation of atheism which the world has ever seen.

Work |

Ezra Taft Benson

Thoughts lead to acts, acts lead to habits, habits lead to character - and our character will determine our eternal destiny.

Day | Love | Spirit | Spirituality | Work |

Ezra Taft Benson

The moment you begin a serious study of the scriptures, you will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the straight and narrow path... When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater abundance.

Freedom | Illusion | Invention | Men | People | Rights | Work | Intellect |

Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

There is natural ignorance and there is artificial ignorance. I should say at the present moment the artificial ignorance is about eighty-five per cent.

Man | Merit | Tragedy | Work |

Feisal Abdul Rauf

The opposition tried to brand us as the 'Ground Zero megamosque.' The language was deliberately wordsmithed in order to arouse hostility against us. But the idea that the Jewish mayor of New York City and the president of the United States supported a mosque at Ground Zero, and took a lot of flak for it, raised their stature in the Muslim world.

Kill | Method | War | World |