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

Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

No, I don't mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression.

Action | Silence | Words |

Václav Havel

My only school was life itself.

Authority | Happy | Love | Nations |

Václav Havel

You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it.

Authority | Awareness | Capacity | Earth | Honor | Hope | Nothing | Order | People | Respect | Right | Rights | Will | World | Respect | Awareness | Value |

Václav Havel

A modern philosopher once said: Only a God can save us now.

Action | Awareness | Greatness | Important | Awareness |

Václav Havel

Poles are able to reflect their history, they respect it. Who knows if anybody will remember when we commemorate our 25 years [since the 1989 Velvet Revolution].

Authority | History | Meaning | Space | Time | World | Value |

Václav Havel

What I am about to say may sound provocative, but I feel more and more strongly that even these ideas are not enough, that we must go farther and deeper.

Authority | Morality | Order | Responsibility | Science | Understanding | Will |

Valmiki NULL

One should not let one’s mind to be overcome by melancholy. Melancholy or moroseness is a very bad thing. It kills (destroys) a man just as an angered serpent kills a child.

Action | Fame | Reputation | Will |

Václav Havel

Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.

Authority | Existence | Man | Public | Rights | Science |

Valmiki NULL

Anger is the enemy which takes one’s life. Anger is enemy with the face of a friend. Anger is like a very sharp sword. Anger destroys everything.

Action | Good | Man | Misfortune | Safe | Tragedy | Wise | Misfortune |

Vannevar Bush

As long as scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems.

Authority | Belief | Duty | Faith | Men | Mission | Necessity | Science | Silence | Story | Will | World | Think |

Vannevar Bush

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability. The abacus, with its beads strung on parallel wires, led the Arabs to positional numeration and the concept of zero many centuries before the rest of the world; and it was a useful tool— so useful that it still exists.

Authority | Duty | Men | Mission | Story | World | Think |

Václav Havel

Today's world, as we all know, is faced with multiple threats. From whichever angle I look at this menace, I always come to the conclusion that salvation can only come through a profound awakening of man to his own personal responsibility, which is at the same time a global responsibility. Thus, the only way to save our world, as I see it, lies in a democracy that recalls its ancient Greek roots: democracy based on an integral human personality personally answering for the fate of the community.

Authority | Awareness | Heart | Office | Opposition | Position | Understanding | Awareness |

Valmiki NULL

There is atonement, laid down by men of character, for one who kills a cow, consumes intoxicating drinks, steals or breaks one’s promise but there is no atonement for one who is ungrateful.

Action | Valor | Valor |

Vannevar Bush

The advanced arithmetical machines of the future will be electrical in nature, and they will perform at 100 times present speeds, or more.

Action | Duty | Need | Neglect | Reason | Search |

Toyohiko Kagawa

Science books are letters from God, telling how He runs His universe.

Action | Civilization | Life | Life |

Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

Then the music strikes up, and freely they pardon the offences and faults of the enemy, and after the victories they are kind to them, if it has been decreed that they should destroy the walls of the enemy's city and take their lives.

Action | Boys | Change | Destroy | Hunger | Kill | Nature | People | Science | Thinking | Old |

Tryon Edwards

Errors of theory or doctrine are not so much false statements, as partial statements. - Half a truth received, while the corresponding half is unknown or rejected, is a practical falsehood.

Action | Neglect | Right |

Tripitaka or Tipitaka NULL

An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.

Action | Important |

Turkish Proverbs

Call the bear Uncle till you are safe across the bridge.

Action |

Turkish Proverbs

Salt water and absence wash away love.

Action | Wrong |