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

Victor Hugo

So long as man is a child, God wills him to be innocent.

Appearance | Contempt | Conversation | Ends | Past | Pity | Old |

Thucydides NULL

We know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of eachothers’ honesty.

Hope | Influence | Question | Thinking | Will | World |

Hugh Blair

The least degree of ambiguity, which leaves the mind in suspense as to the meaning, ought to be avoided with the greatest care.

Admiration | Contempt | History | Love | Public |

William Godwin

Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.

Creed | Distinguish | Man | Means | Mind | Race | Right | Circumstance |

William James

No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed.

Character | Good | Hell | Maxims | Opportunity |

William Law

Reformation If it be the earnest desire and longing of your heart to be merciful as He is merciful; to be full of His unwearied patience, to dwell in His unalterable meekness; if you long to be like Him in universal, impartial love; if you desire to communicate every good to every creature that you are able; if you love and practice everything that is good, righteous, and lovely for its own sake, because it is good, righteous, and lovely; and resist no evil but with goodness; then you have the utmost certainty that the Spirit of God dwells and governs in you.

Day | Enjoyment | Good | Heart | Praise | Sense |

William Melmoth, wrote under pseudonym Sir Thomas Fitzosborne

Upon this principle I imagine it is that some of the finest pieces of antiquity are written in the dialogue manner. Plato and Tully, it should seem, thought truth could never be examined with more advantage than amidst the amicable opposition of well-regulated converse.

Absurd | Circumstances | Contrast | Conversation | Friend | Language | Learning | Lord | Method | Reason | Spirit | Strength | Wonder | World |

Edwin Percy Whipple

Grit is the grain of character. It may generally be described as heroism materialized,--spirit and will thrust into heart, brain, and backbone, so as to form part of the physical substance of the man.

Conscience | Mercy | World |

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Out of the doctrine of original sin grew the crimes and miseries of asceticism, celibacy and witchcraft; woman becoming the helpless victim of all these delusions.

Dignity | Religion | Sense | Woman |

Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell

The subjects had, indeed, risen vividly on my mind. As I saw them with the spiritual eye, before I attempted to embody them, they were striking; but my hand would not second my fancy, and in each case it had wrought out but a pale portrait of the thing I had conceived.

Novelty | Novelty |

Felix Adler

What I state as certain is certain for me. It has approved itself as such in my experience. Let others consult their experience, and see how far it tallies with that which is here set forth.

Age | Children | Need | Nothing | Teach |