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

Thomas Jefferson

In case of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the General Government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the constitutional remedy.

God | Justice | Labor | Man | Means | Nature | People | Revolution | Thought | Will | God | Thought |

Thomas Jefferson

The only thing a man can take beyond this lifetime is his ethics.

Security |

Thomas Jefferson

The people, especially when moderately instructed, are the only safe, because the only honest, depositaries of the public rights, and should therefore be introduced into the administration of them in every function to which they are sufficient; they will err sometimes and accidentally, but never designedly, and with a systematic and persevering purpose of overthrowing the free principles of the government.

Order | Safe | Security |

Thomas Jefferson

May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion.

Blessings | Freedom | Ignorance | Men | Reason | Right | Rights | Security | Superstition | Will |

Thomas Jefferson

The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.

Freedom | Man | Security |

Thomas Jefferson

The catholic principle of republicanism is that every people may establish what form of government they please and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.

Care | God | Health | Law | Men | Neglect | Soul | Will | God |

Thomas Jefferson

Men have differed in opinion, and been divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of societies, and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak.

Blessings | Grace | Ignorance | Light | Mankind | Men | Rights | Science | Security | Superstition | Will |

Thomas Jefferson

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. Modern times have the signal advantage, too, of having discovered the only device by which these rights can be secured, to wit: government by the people, acting not in person, but by representatives chosen by themselves, that is to say, by every man of ripe years and sane mind, who contributes either by his purse or person to the support of his country.

Defeat | Democracy | Government | Lending | Revolution | Will | Government |

Thomas Jefferson

The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them.

Character | Death | Good | Law | Mercy | Murder | Object | Power | Public | Security | Time | Treason | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Murder |

Thomas Jefferson

Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.

Duty | Freedom | Important | Little | Power | Principles | Revolution | Right | Search | Think |

Thomas Jefferson

Our people shall be free.

Security |

Thomas Jefferson

The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management.

Government | Liberty | Power | Present | Revolution | Government |

Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

Never had he felt the joy of the word more sweetly, never had he known so clearly that Eros dwells in language.

Cowardice | Cruelty | Loathing | Love | Lust | Security | War | Cruelty |

Thomas Merton

For the birds there is not a time that they tell, but the point vierge between darkness and light, between being and nonbeing. You can tell yourself the time by their waking, if you are experienced. But that is your folly, not theirs.

Force | Good | Guarantee | Love | Men | Power | Security |

Thomas Merton

Contradictions have always existed in the soul of [individuals]. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.

Contemplation | Day | Desolation | Devotion | Discipline | God | Joy | Justice | Labor | Magic | Obscurity | Obscurity | Peace | Relationship | Security | Spirit | Suffering | World | God | Contemplation | Happiness |

Thomas Merton

Memory is corrupted and ruined by a crowd of memories. If I am going to have a true memory, there are a thousand things that must first be forgotten. Memory is not fully itself when it reaches only into the past. A memory that is not alive to the present does not remember the here and now, does not remember its true identity, is not memory at all. He who remembers nothing but facts and past events, and is never brought back into the present, is a victim of amnesia.

Grace | Neglect | Silence | Will |

Thomas Paine

It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.

Change | Man | Men | Opinion | Reason | Revolution | Right | Time | Truth |

Thomas Paine

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

Awe | Balance | Good | Man | Mankind | Means | Neglect | Order | Power | Will | World |

Thomas Paine

Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God's sake let us come to a final separation.

Design | Security |

United Nations NULL

Article 51 - Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.

Nations | Security |