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

Jeremiah Seed

We see how much a man has, and therefore we envy him; did we see how little he enjoys, we should rather pity him.

Character | Envy | Little | Man | Pity |

Madame Swetchine, fully Anne Sophie Swetchine née Sophia Petrovna Soïmonov or Soymanof

The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs. It will pity you for what you lose; never for what you lack.

Character | Pity | Sympathy | Will | World |

William Makepeace Thackeray

Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatever.

Character | Dependence | Humanity | Pity | Tenderness |

Edward Thomson

Love, Gratitude, and Pity wept at once.

Character | Gratitude | Love | Pity |

James Q. Wilson

To say that people have a moral sense is not the same thing as saying that they are innately good. A moral sense must compete with other senses that are natural to humans - the desire to survive, acquire possessions, indulge in sex, or accumulate power - in short, with self-interest narrowly defined. How that struggle is resolved will differ depending on our character, our circumstances, and the cultural and political tendencies of the day. But saying that a moral sense exists is the same thing as saying that humans, by their nature, are potentially good.

Character | Circumstances | Day | Desire | Good | Nature | People | Possessions | Power | Self | Self-interest | Sense | Struggle | Will |

Arthur Warwick

Too many follow example rather than precept; but it is safer to learn rather from precept than example. Man a wise teacher does not follow his own teaching; for it is easier to say, do this, than to do it. If then I see good doctrine with an evil life, though I pity the last, I will follow the first. Good sayings belong to all; evil actions only to their authors.

Character | Doctrine | Evil | Example | Good | Life | Life | Man | Pity | Precept | Will | Wise | Learn | Teacher |

William L. Abbott

Develop the art of friendliness. One can experience a variety of emotions staying home and reading or watching television; one will be alive but hardly living. Most of the meaningful aspects of life are closely associated with people. Even the dictionary definition of life involves people.

Art | Emotions | Experience | Life | Life | People | Reading | Television | Will | Wisdom | Art |

Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Oxford

Envy deserves pity more than anger for it hurts nobody so much as itself. It is a distemper rather than a vice: for nobody would feel envy if he could help it. Whoever envies another, secretly allows that person's superiority.

Anger | Character | Envy | Pity | Superiority |

Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

Time takes no holiday. It does not roll idly by, but through our senses works its own wonders in the mind. Time came and went from one day to the next; in its coming and its passing it brought me other hopes and other memories.

Day | Time | Wisdom |

Honoré de Balzac

The hardest sentiment to tolerate is pity, especially when it's deserved. Hatred is a tonic, it vitalizes us, it inspires vengeance, but pity deadens, it makes our weakness weaker.

Pity | Sentiment | Vengeance | Weakness | Wisdom |

Bernard Baruch, fully Bernard Mannes Baruch

Recipe for success: Be polite, prepare yourself for whatever you are asked to do, keep yourself tidy, be cheerful, don't be envious, be honest with yourself so you will be honest with others, be helpful, interest yourself in your job, don't pity yourself, be quick to praise, be loyal to your friends, avoid prejudices, be independent, interest yourself in politics, and read the newspapers.

Pity | Politics | Praise | Success | Will | Wisdom |

Richard Baxter

Though selfishness hath defiled the whole man, yet sensual pleasure is the chief part of its interest, and therefore by the senses it commonly works, and these are the doors and the windows by which iniquity entereth the soul.

Man | Pleasure | Selfishness | Soul | Wisdom |

Frederika Bremer

People have generally three epochs in their confidence in man. In the first they believe him to be everything that is good, and they are lavish with their friendship and confidence. In the next, they have had experience, which has smitten down their confidence, and they; then have to be careful not to mistrust every one, and to put the worst construction upon everything. Later in life, they learn that the greater number of men have much; more good in them than bad, and that even when there is cause to blame, there is more reason to pity than condemn; and then a spirit of confidence again awakens within them.

Blame | Cause | Confidence | Experience | Good | Life | Life | Man | Men | Mistrust | People | Pity | Reason | Spirit | Wisdom | Friendship | Learn |

Pearl S. Buck, fully Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu

The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born.

Age | Enough | Family | Father | Isolation | Mother | Nature | People | Security | Wisdom | World |

Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We have really no absent friends.

Absence | Better | Heart | People | Wisdom | Think |

Nicholas-Edme Rétif or Restif, aka Rétif de la Bretonne

The heart of youth is reached through the senses; the senses of age are reached through the heart.

Age | Heart | Wisdom | Youth | Youth |

Richard Cumberland, Bishop of Peterborough

The happy gift of being agreeable seems to consist not in one, but in an assemblage of talents tending to communicate delight; and how many are there, who, by easy manners, sweetness of temper, and a variety of other undefinable qualities, possess the power of pleasing without any visible effort, without the aids of wit, wisdom, or learning, nay, as it should seem in their defiance; and this without appearing even to know that they possess it.

Defiance | Effort | Happy | Learning | Manners | Power | Qualities | Temper | Wisdom | Wit |

Mary Baker Eddy

Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind, nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health.

Health | Mind | Wisdom |