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

William Penn

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.

Character | Evil |

Antonio Porchia

In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.

Character | Heart | Nothing |

Andrew Preston Peabody

The force, the mass of character, mind, heart or soul that a man can put into any work is the most important factor in that work.

Character | Force | Heart | Important | Man | Mind | Soul | Work |

Fritz Perls, fully Friedrich "Fritz" (Frederick) Salomon Perls

Gestalt Prayer - I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.

Chance | Character | Prayer | World |

Nikita Ivanovich Panin

Two men please God - who serves Him with all his heart because he knows Him; who seeks Him with all his heart because he knows Him not.

Character | God | Heart | Men | God |

Plotinus NULL

Many times it has happened: lifted out of the body into myself; becoming external to all other things and self-centered; beholding a marvelous beauty; then, more than ever, assured of community with the loftiest order; enacting the noblest life, acquiring identity with the divine; stationing within It by having attained that activity; poised above whatsoever in the Intellectual is less than the Supreme: yet, there comes the moment of descent from intellection to reasoning, and after that sojourn in the divine, I ask myself how it happens that I can now be descending, and how did the Soul ever enter into my body, the Soul which even within the body, is the high thing it has shown itself to be.

Beauty | Body | Character | Life | Life | Order | Self | Soul |

Thomas Paine

'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

Business | Character | Conduct | Conscience | Death | Heart | Little | Principles | Will | Business |

Ronald E. Osborn

No heart is empty of the humor of curiosity, the beggar being as attentive, in his station, to an increase of knowledge, as the prince.

Character | Curiosity | Heart | Humor | Knowledge |

Thomas Paine

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

Business | Character | Conscience | Distress | Heart | Little | Love | Man | Principles | Reflection | Smile | Strength | Will | Business |

Petrarch, anglicized from Italian name Francesco Petrarca NULL

Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart of life, and is prophetic of eternal good.

Character | Duty | Eternal | Good | Grace | Heart | Humanity | Life | Life | Love | Right | Soul | Truth |

Harold Oxley

The fact is that we can find happiness only in serving others. Just as a car is designed to move, so is a man designed to serve. And if he looks for happiness in anything other than service and sacrifice, he will always be disappointed.

Character | Looks | Man | Sacrifice | Service | Will | Happiness |

Pliny the Elder, full name Casus Plinius Secundus NULL

We ought to be guarded against every appearance of envy, as a passion that always implies inferiority wherever it resides.

Appearance | Character | Envy | Inferiority | Passion |

Sidney Powell

Try to forget yourself in the service of others. For when we think too much of ourselves and our own interests, we easily become despondent. But when we work for others, our efforts return to bless us.

Character | Service | Work | Think |

François de La Noüe

It would truly be a fine thing if men suffered themselves to be guided by reason, that they should acquiesce in the true remonstrances addressed to them by the writings of the learned and the advice of friends. But the greater part are so disposed that the words which enter by one ear do incontinently go out of the other, and begin again by following the custom. The best teacher one can have is necessity.

Advice | Character | Men | Necessity | Words | Following | Teacher |