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

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

If the work of the average man required half the mental agility and readiness of resource of the work of the average prostitute, the average man would be constantly on the verge of starvation.

Love |

Gustave Flaubert

The principal thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft.

Will | Words |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Government today is growing too strong to be safe. There are no longer any citizens in the world there are only subjects. They work day in and day out for their masters they are bound to die for their masters at call. Out of this working and dying they tend to get less and less.

Love | Mistrust |

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Is the Church fulfilling a purely religious role when by its silence or friendly relationships it lends legitimacy to dictatorial and oppressive government?

Children | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

Awakening | Heart | Old |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Wars are no longer waged by the will of superior men, capable of judging dispassionately and intelligently the causes behind them and the effects flowing out of them. They are now begun by first throwing a mob into a panic; they are ended only when it has spent its ferine fury.

Heart | Light |

Gustave Flaubert

Why was life so unsatisfactory? Why did everything she leaned on crumble instantly to dust?

Fighting | Light | Will |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.

Heart | Light |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe... Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.

Will |

Gustavo Gutiérrez

The future of history belongs to the poor and exploited.

Will | Following |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.

Love | Mother |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

Will |

Gustave Flaubert

Without ideality, there is no grandeur; without grandeur there is no beauty. Olympus is a mountain. The most swagger monument will always be the Pyramids. Exuberance is better than taste; the desert is better than a street-pavement, and a savage is better than a hairdresser!

Love | Plan |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I've learned that it doesn't matter how your husband squeezes the toothpaste, the important thing is how he squeezes you.

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

As I stoop to lace my shoe you clout me over the coccyx with a length of hickory (Carya lacinosa). I conclude instantly that you are a jackass. This is a whole process of human thought in little. This also is free will.

Will | Youth | Youth |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

The only obligation I recognize in this world is my duty to my immediate family

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever... I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it.

Will | Learn | Old |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace.

Heart |

Haile Selassie

If each and every one endeavors to cooperate and work in as much as his capacity permits, our faith rests upon the Almighty God that he would bless the results for us.

Will |

Hal Borland, formally Harold Glen Borland

He who travels west travels not only with the sun but with history.

Will |