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

United Nations NULL

Article 34 - The Security Council may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute, in order to determine whether the continuance of the dispute or situation is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.

Action | Attention | Nations | Peace | Principles | Question | Regard | Regulation | Security |

William Barclay

Religion fails if it cannot speak to men as they are.

God | Order | Peace | Power | Prayer | Security | Serenity | Silence | God |

William Cohen, fully William Sebastian Cohen

To the extent that this bombing interrupted the training activities of a terrorist network, they may be more safe.

Security | Service |

William Cohen, fully William Sebastian Cohen

There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least... Others are engaging even in an eco- type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

Evidence | Intelligence | Risk | Security | Time | Weapons |

William Carleton

With the welfare of the Irish people my heart and feelings are identified, and to. this object, in all its latitude, have my pen and my knowledge of their character been directed. I found them a class unknown in literature, unknown by their own landlords, and unknown by those in whose hands much of their destiny was placed. If I became the historian of their habits and manners, their feelings, their prejudices, their superstitions, and their crimes; if I have attempted to delineate their moral, religious, and physical state, it was because I saw no other person willing to undertake a task which surely must be looked upon as an important one. I had also other motives. I was anxious that those who ought, but did not, understand their character, should know them - [x] not merely for selfish purposes, but that they should teach them to know themselves and appreciate their rights, both moral and civil, as rational men, who owe obedience to law, without the necessity of being slaves either to priest or landlord: such is the position in which I wish to see them. There is little prospect, however, of this. Even since the period in which these stories were written, now so short a time since, a gloomy change has come over them. The pestilent poison of mercenary agitation, joined to the neglect of landlords and the interference of priests, has created a reaction which threatens to trample - and does trample - law, morals, and religion, under foot. How it may end, it is impossible to say; but God grant that it may be for the best!

Earth | Intelligence | Man | Men | Paradise | Power | Security | World |

William Cowper

United yet divided, twain at once: so sit two kings of Brentford on one throne.

Expectation | Security | Expectation |

Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather

Nothing is far and nothing is near, if one desires. The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing: desire.

Love | Security |

Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather

When people ask me if it has been a hard or easy road, I always answer with the same quotation, the end is nothing, the road is all.

Kindness | Reason | Security | Afraid |

Wilhelm Reich

The question of how and why the encrustations and rigidifications of human emotional life are brought about led directly into the realm of vegetative life.

Force | Law | Men | Nature | Power | Present | Relationship | Research | Security | World | Crisis |

Wilhelm Reich

You differ from a great man in only one respect: the great man was once a very little man, but he developed one important quality: he recognized the smallness and narrowness of his thoughts and actions. Under the pressure of some task that meant a great deal to him, he learned to see how his smallness, his pettiness endangered his happiness. In other words, a great man knows when and in what way he is a little man. A little man does not know he is little and is afraid to know. He hides his pettiness and narrowness behind illusions of strength and greatness, someone else's strength and greatness. He's proud of his great generals but not of himself. He admires an idea he has not had, not one he has had. The less he understands something, the more firmly he believes in it. And the better he understands an idea, the less he believes in it.

Aliveness | Better | Children | Freedom | Good | Harmony | Important | Life | Life | Love | Man | Marriage | Public | Respect | Security | Thinking | Will | Woman | Respect | Happiness |

Wilhelm Reich

When I started studying Reich’s works, I went through a period of enthusiasm, followed by a period of skepticism, followed by a period of just continued interest, but I think a lot of his ideas probably were sound. A lot probably were unsound. And, I’m not a Reichian in the sense of somebody who thinks he was the greatest scientist who ever lived and discovered the basic secrets of psychology, physics and everything else, all in one lifetime. But I think he has enough sound ideas that his unpopular ideas deserve further investigation. - View Quote Details on He had a great capacity to arouse irrational hatred obviously… Every physician, shoemaker, mechanic or educator must know his shortcomings if he is to do his work and make his living. For some decades, you have begun to play a governing role on this earth. It is on your thinking and your actions that the future of humanity depends. But your teachers and masters do not tell you how you really think and are; nobody dares to voice the one criticism of you which could make you capable of governing your own fate. You are “free” only in one sense: free from education in governing your life yourself, free from self-criticism.

Art | Better | Body | Little | Procrastination | Security | Wife | Will | Art | Think |

Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha

Despite three years of falling prices, which have significantly improved the attractiveness of common stocks, we still find very few that even mildly interest us. That dismal fact is testimony to the insanity of valuations reached during The Great Bubble. Unfortunately, the hangover may prove to be proportional to the binge.

Present | Security |

Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha

I really like my life. I’ve arranged my life so that I can do what I want.

Little | Office | People | Present | Security |

Wendell Berry

Connection is health. And what our society does its best to disguise from us is how ordinary, how commonly attainable, health is. We lose our health - and create profitable diseases and dependences - by failing to see the direct connections between living and eating, eating and working, working and loving. In gardening, for instance, one works with the body to feed the body. The work, if it is knowledgeable, makes for excellent food. And it makes one hungry. The work thus makes eating both nourishing and joyful, not consumptive, and keeps the eater from getting fat and weak. This is health, wholeness, a source of delight.

Conservation | Discussion | Indispensable | People |

Wendell Berry

If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we have ever prepared for war.

Good | Health | Life | Life | Prosperity | Security | Will |

Wendell Berry

And I declare myself free from ignorant love. You easy lovers and forgivers of mankind, stand back! I will love you at a distance, and not because you deserve it. My love must be discriminate or fail to bear its weight.

Global | People | Security |

Vimala Thakar

There have been superficial blendings, as spiritual groups take up social service work and social activists join religious organizations, but a real integration of social action and spirituality at a deep, innovative level has not yet happened to any significant degree. The history of human development has been fragmentary, and the majority of people have been content with the fragmentation. It has the sanction of society. Each fragment of society has its own set of values. Among many social activists, anger, hatred, violence, bitterness, and cynicism are accepted norms, even though the effectiveness of these motivations for peaceful living has been seriously put in doubt. And indifference to the needs of the poor has had shocking acceptance among generations of spiritual people who considered higher states of consciousness much more significant than the misery of the starving millions.

Awakening | Madness | People | Security | Suicide | World |

Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard

Fighting inner darkness in the wrong way is the same as submitting to it. Truth will show you how to truly fight for light.

Ends | Insecurity | Journey | People | Security | Following |

Václav Havel

Full freedom of speech and expression prevails in our country, and freedom of assembly and association is guaranteed.

Government | Security | Government |

Vannevar Bush

Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown. Freedom of inquiry must be preserved under any plan for Government support of science.

Achievement | Peace | Progress | Security |