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

Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs

The guns on the walls that surround the prison accurately, though unwittingly, index the true character of the penitentiary in our day.

Little | Nothing | Prison | Public |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

At least when the Emperor Justinian, a sky-god man, decided to outlaw sodomy, he had to come up with a good practical reason, which he did. It is well known, Justinian declared, that buggery is a principal cause of earthquakes, and so must be prohibited. But our sky-godders, always eager to hate, still quote Leviticus, as if that looney text had anything useful to say about anything except, perhaps, the inadvisability of eating shellfish in the Jerusalem area.

Opinion | Public |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

Howard's eyes were open and very clear. I'd forgotten what a beautiful gray they were--illness and medicine had regularly glazed them over; now they were bright and attentive, and he was watching me, consciously, through long lashes. Lungs, heart may have stopped but the optic nerves were still sending messages to a brain which, those who should know tell us, does not immediately shut down. So we stared at each other at the end... 'Can you hear me?' I asked him. 'I know you can see me.' Although there was no breath for speech, he now had a sort of wry wiseguy from the Bronx expression on his face which said clearly to me who knew all his expressions, 'So this is the big fucking deal everyone goes on about.

Books | Ignorance | Time |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

It is not enough merely to win; others must lose.

Future | Hope | Television | Will |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because there's too much going on that you can't take into account. You can, however, write a perfect sentence now and then. I have.

Public | System | Propaganda |

Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs

With faith and hope and courage we hold our heads erect and with dauntless spirit marshal the working class for the march from Capitalism to Socialism, from Slavery to Freedom, from Barbarism to Civilization.

Courage | Hell | History | Labor | Men | Need | Spirit | Struggle | Time | Will | World | Writing |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions. But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all.

Reserve |

Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs

In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.

Brotherhood | Cause | History | Time | Will |

Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs

If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous issue of war or peace.

Better | Education | Men | People | Prison | Service |

Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs

The African is here and to stay. How came he to our shores? Ask your grandfathers, Mr. Anonymous, and if they will tell the truth you will or should blush for the crimes.

Labor | Mission | Power | Public | World |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

If the splitter of hairs has a sharp enough knife, the fact of life itself can be chopped into nothing.

Men | Model | Time | Wonder | Understand |

Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs

They are distorted, deformed, hideous mentally and morally. Their trade is treason, their breath is pollution and yet the officials of the C.B.&Q. formed a conspiracy with these professional liars, perjurers, cut-throats and murderers to overcome a strike, the result of a policy of flagrant injustice.

Duty | Government | Talking | Time | War | Government |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

The reason no one has yet been able to come up with a good word to describe the homosexualist (sometimes known as gay, fag, queer, etc.) is because he does not exist. The human race is divided into male and female. Many human beings enjoy sexual relations with their own sex, many don't; many respond to both. This plurality is the fact of our nature and not worth fretting about.

Public |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is an ability to articulate human relationships.

Education | Nature |

Eugene McCarthy, fully Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty

Time |

Eugene McCarthy, fully Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.

Time |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

As one gets older, litigation replaces sex.

Parents | Youth | Youth | Understand |

Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

We are the United States of amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.

Time |