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

Joseph Jones "J.J." Reynolds

Remember that when you're in the right you can afford to keep your temper and that when you're in the wrong you can't afford to lose it.

Character | Right | Temper | Wrong |

David Hume

He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to any circumstances.

Character | Circumstances | Happy | Temper |

Washington Irving

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

Age | Character | Temper |

Jane Porter

A cheerful temper spreads like the dawn, and all vapors disperse before it. Even the tear dries on the cheek, and the sigh sinks away half-breathed when the eye of benignity beams upon the unhappy.

Character | Dawn | Temper |

Thomas Paine

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Character | Moderation | Temper | Virtue | Virtue | Moderation |

Robert Southey

A stubborn mind conduces as little to wisdom or even to knowledge as stubborn temper to happiness.

Character | Knowledge | Little | Mind | Temper | Wisdom |

Vicksburg Whig, also called Vicksburg Weekly Whig, Weekly Whig

With temper calm and mild, and words of soften’d tone, he overthrows his neighbor’s cause and justifies his own.

Cause | Character | Temper | Words |

John Angell James

Too many have no idea of the subjection of their temper to the influence of religion, and yet what is changed, if the temper is not? If a man is as passionate, malicious, resentful, sullen, moody, or morose after his conversion as before it, what is he converted from or to?

Influence | Man | Religion | Temper | Wisdom |

Pliny the Younger, full name Casus Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo NULL

As in our lives so also in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise, so to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness.

Cheerfulness | Melancholy | Temper | Wisdom | Wise |

Thomas Paine

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Good | Moderation | Temper | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | Moderation |

William Warburton

Enthusiasm is that temper of the mind in which the imagination has got the better of the judgment.

Better | Enthusiasm | Imagination | Judgment | Mind | Temper | Wisdom |

T. H. Bindley, fully Thomas Herbert Bindley

We need to find out, not a formula, but a temper - not a creed, but a Faith - which is common to all, and which underlies all, and supports all, and inspires all.

Creed | Faith | Need | Temper |

Robert Aris Willmott

Taste is not stationary. It grows every day, and is improved by cultivation, as a good temper is refined by religion. In its most advanced state it takes the title of judgment. Hume quotes Fontenelle's ingenious distinction between the common watch that tells the hours, and the delicately constructed one that marks the seconds and smallest differences of time.

Cultivation | Day | Distinction | Good | Religion | Taste | Temper | Title | Wisdom |

Lloyd George, fully David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor

Of all the bigotries that ravage the human temper there is none so stupid as the anti-Semitic. It has no basis in reason, it is not rooted in faith, it aspires to no ideal.

Faith | Reason | Temper |

Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso NULL

I believe the purpose of life is happiness. In today’s world being happy is inseparable from being responsible. We need to temper the extremes of our personal nature so that we can realize oneness with the universe. We must keep our destructive qualities from outweighing our constructive qualities.

Happy | Life | Life | Nature | Need | Oneness | Purpose | Purpose | Qualities | Temper | Universe | World |

Thomas Paine

Those words, “temperate and moderate,” are words either of political cowardice, or of cunning, or seduction. A thing moderately good, if not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is a species of vice.

Cowardice | Cunning | Good | Moderation | Temper | Virtue | Virtue | Words | Moderation |

Ssemiao NULL

He who would take good care of his health should be sparing in his tastes, banish his worries, temper his desires, restrain his emotions, take good care of his vital force, spare his words, regard lightly success and failure, ignore sorrows and difficulties, drive away foolish ambitions, avoid great likes and dislikes, calm his vision and his hearing, and be faithful in his internal regimen. How can one have sickness if he does not tire his spirits and worry his soul? Therefore he would nourish his nature should eat only when he is hungry and not fill himself with food, and he should drink only when he is thirsty and not fill himself with too much drink. He should eat little and between long intervals, and not too much and not too constantly. He should aim at being a little hungry when well-filled, and being a little well-filled when hungry. Being well-filled hurts the lungs and being hungry hurts the flow of vital energy.

Care | Emotions | Energy | Failure | Force | Good | Health | Little | Nature | Regard | Soul | Success | Temper | Vision | Words | Worry |