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

Edward Dowling, S.J.

The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it.

Delusion | Democracy | Terror | Wisdom |

Albert Einstein

Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought.

Diversity | Experience | Science | Sense | System | Thought | Wisdom |

Albert Einstein

Some political and social activities of the Catholic Church are detrimental and even dangerous for the community as a whole... [e.g.] the fight against birth control at a time when overpopulation [is] a serious obstacle to peace.

Birth | Church | Control | Peace | Time | Wisdom | Obstacle |

Albert Einstein

It was the scientists who first made true democracy possible, for not only did they lighten our daily tasks but they made the finest works of art and thought, whose enjoyment was until recently the privilege of the favored classes, accessible to all.

Art | Democracy | Enjoyment | Thought | Wisdom | Art | Privilege |

Albert Einstein

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

Good | Wisdom |

Felix Frankfurter

To regard teachers - in our entire educational system from the primary grades to the university - as priests of our democracy is therefore not to indulge in hyperbole. It is the special task of teachers to foster those habits of open-mindedness and critical inquiry which alone make for responsible citizens, who in turn, make possible an enlightened and effective public opinion.

Democracy | Inquiry | Opinion | Public | Regard | System | Wisdom |

Michel Foucault

I believe that the political significance of the problem of sex is due to the fact that sex is located at the point of intersection of the discipline of the body and the control of the population.

Body | Control | Discipline | Wisdom |

Environment Pollution Panel NULL

The pervasive nature of pollution, its disregard of political boundaries including state lines, the national character of the technical, economic and political problems involved, and the recognized Federal responsibilities for administering vast public lands which can be changed by pollution, for carrying out large enterprises which can produce pollutants, for preserving and improving the nation’s natural resources, all make it mandatory that the Federal Government assume leadership and exert its influence in pollution abatement on a national scale.

Character | Government | Influence | Nature | Problems | Public | Wisdom | Government | Leadership |

William P. Faunce

We have in America the largest public school system on earth, the most expensive college buildings, the most extensive curriculum, but nowhere else is education so blind to its objectives, so indifferent to any specific outcome as in America. One trouble has been at the repression of faults rather than creation of virtues.

Earth | Education | Objectives | Public | System | Wisdom | Trouble |

Charles James Fox

All political power is a trust.

Power | Trust | Wisdom |

Buckminster Fuller, fully Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller

Either man is obsolete or war is. War is the ultimate tool of politics. Political leaders look out only for their own side. Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.

Man | War | Wisdom |

French National Assembly - Declaration of the Rights of Man NULL

The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.

Liberty | Man | Oppression | Property | Rights | Security | Wisdom |

John Gaule

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.

System | Wisdom |

Kurt Gödel, also Goedel

Every system of knowledge contains meaningful tenets whose truth or falsity cannot be established if one remains completely within that system.

Knowledge | System | Tenets | Truth | Wisdom |