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

Wilkie Collins, fully William Wilkie Collins

You are one of the most remarkable women England - you have never written a novel.

Friend | Mortal | Need | Opinion | Past | Present | Price | Right | Strength | Wife | Will | Work |

Wilhelm von Humboldt, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt

In the moral world there is nothing impossible if we can bring a thorough will to it. Man can do everything with himself, but he must not attempt to do too much with others.

Order | Present | Reform |

Wilhelm von Humboldt, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt

The things of the world are ever rising and falling, and in perpetual change; and this change must be according to the will of God, as He has bestowed upon man neither the wisdom nor the power to enable him to check it. The great lesson in these things is, that man must strengthen himself doubly at such times to fulfill his duty and to do what is right, and must seek his happiness and inward peace from objects which cannot be taken away from him.

Energy | Individual | Man | Need | Perception | Reason | Research | Spirit | Study | Truth |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

There is nothing in Socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.

Brutality | Fighting | History | Order | Trials |

Wilhelm von Humboldt, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt

Besides the pleasure derived from acquired knowledge, there lurks in the mind of man, and tinged with a shade of sadness, an unsatisfactory longing for something beyond the present, a striving towards regions yet unknown and unopened.

Need | Spirit |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

Civilization is the order and freedom is promoting cultural activity.

Curiosity | Fear | Impulse | Insecurity | Knowledge | Man | Order | Understanding |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Both parties have their good times and bad times at different times. Good when they are out. Bad when they are in.

Need |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

I am a great believer in high-priced people. If a thing cost a lot it may not be any better, but it adds a certain amount of class that the cheap thing can never approach; in the long run it's the higher-priced things that are the cheapest.

Need |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

I originated a remark many years ago that I think has been copied more than any little thing that I've ever said, and I used it in the FOLLIES of 1922. I said America has a unique record. We never lost a war and we never won a conference in our lives. I believe that we could without any degree of egotism, single-handed lick any nation in the world. But we can't confer with Costa Rica and come home with our shirts on.

Need | Will |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.

Money | Order | Will |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

There is one rule that works in every calamity. Be it pestilence, war or famine, the rich get richer and poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it.

Business | Individual | Need | Nothing | Business |

Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather

"You should not be discouraged; one does not die of a cold," the priest said to the bishop. The old man smiled. "I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived."

Destroy | Hunger | Liberty | Order | Will |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

You can take a sob story and a stick of candy and lead America right off into the Dead Sea.

Order |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Try to live your life so that you wouldn't be afraid to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.

Need | Reason | Think |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

You buy lots in Los Angeles with the same frequency you would newspapers in other towns. After buying it, you put it back in the hands of the agents again, for don't think you are going to get away with that lot. It has to be sold three or four times that day.

Need |

Werner Heisenberg, fully Werner Karl Heisenberg

The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form - the one of the particles, the other of the waves - are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases.

Important | Need | Order | World |

Wes Jackson

Observing this years ago I formulated a question? Is it possible to build an agriculture based on the prairie as standard or model? I saw a sharp contrast between the major features of the wheat field and the major features of the prairie. The wheat field features annuals in monoculture; the prairie features perennials in polyculture, or mixtures. Because all of our high-yielding crops are annuals or are treated as such, crucial questions must be answered. Can perennialism and high yield go together? If so, can a polyculture of perennials outyield a monoculture of perennials? Can such an ecosystem sponsor its own fertility? Is it realistic to think we can manage such complexity adequately to avoid the problem of pests outcompeting us?

Effort | Good | Important | Intelligence | Need | Noise | Tradition | Wisdom |

Wendell Phillips

Great political questions stir the deepest nature of one half the nation, but they pass far above and over the heads of the other half.

Need | Rights | Friends |

Wernher von Braun, fully Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun

For my confirmation, I didn't get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift.

Design | Law | Necessity | Order | Purpose | Purpose | Universe |