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

Wilhelm Reich

Life springs from thousands of sources vibrant, hands up everyone who cling to, refuses to be expressed in phrases tedious, only accepts actions transparent, truthful words of love and pleasure

Choice | Cruelty | Doctrine | Energy | Error | Fate | Greatness | Insight | Labor | Life | Life | Light | Little | Love | Man | Marriage | Meanness | Men | Simplicity | Time | Truth | World | Cruelty | Fate | Child | Friends | Value |

Walter Savage Landor

A little praise is good for a shy temper; it teaches it to rely on the kindness of others.

Hazard | Man | Will | Value |

Walter Savage Landor

Kingship is a profession which has produced both the most illustrious and the most contemptible of the human race.

Play | War | Value |

Walter J. Ong, fully Walter Jackson Ong

Deeply typographic folk forget to think of words as primarily oral, as events, and hence as necessarily powered: for them, words are rather to be assimilated to things, "out there". Such "things" are not actions, but are in a radical sense dead.

Man | Thought | Understanding | Think | Thought | Value |

Wang Wei, aka Wang Youcheng

Round a turn of the Qin Fortress winds the Wei River, and Yellow Mountain foot-hills enclose the Court of China; past the South Gate willows comes the Car of Many Bells on the upper Palace-Garden Road-a solid length of blossom; a Forbidden City roof holds two phoenixes in cloud; the foliage of spring shelters multitudes from rain; and now, when the heavens are propitious for action, here is our Emperor ready-no wasteful wanderer.

Age | Good | Light | Self | World | Old | Think | Value |

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

The directors know now -- and will always know in the future -- exactly what they will do when the need arises. And while we are on the subject, I feel terrific.

Business | Business | Value |

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

We'd go down and play the best team. It would be fun for me and Bill to play the champions. And it might spur them on some.

Fortune | Safe | Value |

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

You’re neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You’re right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right—and that’s the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don’t have to worry about anybody else.

Cause | Time | Value |

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

I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.

Choice | Gold | Will | Worth | Value |

Wang Yang-Ming or Yangming, aka Wang Shouren or Wang Shou-jen, courtesy name Bo'an

We know that the extension of knowledge has to consist in action, and it is clear that without action there can be no extension of knowledge. Does not the state of the unity of knowledge and action stand sharply in focus? . . . Whenever the superior man is engaged in practical affairs or discussion, he insists on the task of knowledge and action combined. The aim is precisely to extend the liangzhi of his original mind. He is unlike those who devote themselves to merely talking and hearing as though that were knowledge, and divide knowledge and action into two separate things as though they really could be itemized and take place one after the other.

Learning | Value |

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

It is more important to say "no" to an opportunity, than to say "yes".

Need | Think | Value |

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

Money to some extent sometimes let you be in more interesting environments. But it can’t change how many people love you or how healthy you are.

World | Value |

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

The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don't have to swing at everything — you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, "Swing, you bum!"

Business | Chance | Good | Important | Success | Business | Value |

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

Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, ‘I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.’ If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.

Talking | Value |

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

We've used derivatives for many, many years. I don't think derivatives are evil, per se, I think they are dangerous. ...So we use lots of things daily that are dangerous, but we generally pay some attention to how they're used. We tell the cars how fast they can go.

Children | Fortune | Safe | Value |

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

Charlie and I decided long ago that in an investment lifetime it's too hard to make hundreds of smart decisions. That judgment became ever more compelling as Berkshire's capital mushroomed and the universe of investments that could significantly affect our results shrank dramatically. Therefore, we adopted a strategy that required our being smart - and not too smart at that - only a very few times. Indeed, we'll now settle for one good idea a year. (Charlie says it's my turn.)

Better | Goals | Nothing | Time | Value |

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

Berkshire Hathaway will sell you insurance, carpeting or any of our other products in exchange for options identical to those you grant yourselves.

Dynamic | Fame | Fortune | Mystery | Value |

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

What’s the sense in getting rich, just to stare, at a ticker tape all day?

Value |

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

This combination virtually assures both Berkshire and General Re shareholders that they will have a better future than if the two companies operated separately,

Destiny | Motives | Order | Value |