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

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 |

Gustave Flaubert

We think of women at every age: while still children, we fondle with a na‹ve sensuality the breasts of those grown-up girls kissing us and cuddling us in their arms; at the age of ten, we dream of love; at fifteen, love comes along; at sixty, it is still with us, and if dead men in their tombs have any thought in their heads, it is how to make their way underground to the nearby grave, lift the shroud of the dear departed women, and mingle with her in her sleep

Little | Sound | World |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

World |

Gustave Flaubert

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

Fighting | Light | Will |

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 |

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 |

Hannah Arendt

If you ask a member of this generation two simple questions: "How do you want the world to be in fifty years?" and "What do you want your life to be like five years from now?" the answers are quite often preceded by "Provided there is still a world" and "Provided I am still alive." To the often-heard question, ?Who are they, this new generation?? one is tempted to answer, Those who hear the ticking. And to the other question, Who are they who utterly deny them? the answer may well be, Those who do not know, or refuse to face, things as they really are.

Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

Will |

Hal Borland, formally Harold Glen Borland

To know after absence the familiar street and road and village and house is to know again the satisfaction of home.

Learning | Will |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.

Organization | Will | Trouble | Leader |