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

Michael S. Josephson

A deeper satisfaction lies in honoring universal ethical values, that is, values that people everywhere believe should inform behavior. That unity between principled belief and honorable behavior is the foundation for real happiness.

Behavior | Belief | People | Unity |

Nathaniel Howe

The way of this world is to praise dead saints and persecute living ones.

Praise | World |

Norman Vincent Peale

“Every morning of the world I give thanks for all the wonderful things in my life,” declared a young man enthusiastically. “And do you know something? It’s strange indeed, but the more I give thanks, the more I have reason to be thankful. For, you see, blessings just pile up on me one after another like nobody’s business”... The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for... The attitude of gratitude revitalizes the entire mental process by activating all other attitudes, thus stimulating creativity... Remember that praise and thanksgiving are the most powerful prayers of all.

Art | Blessings | Business | Creativity | Gratitude | Life | Life | Man | Practice | Praise | Reason | Thankfulness | World | Art |

Norman Vincent Peale

To experience the satisfaction and enjoyment of success in life, a definitive goal is essential... Strong and organized purposefulness toward a definitive objective will focus your powers into a strong motivation in attainment of your goal.

Attainment | Enjoyment | Experience | Focus | Life | Life | Success | Will |

Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL

Those who are greedy of praise prove that they are poor in merit.

Merit | Praise |

Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL

If our own conscience protests and refuses to accept praise then it is proof against the flatterer.

Conscience | Need | Praise | World |

Ralph Nader

It’s about whether we’re going to be able to look forward to our descendants and hand this world over to them in much better shape, so they will look back on us with kindness and with praise – rather than cursing us for our apathy, or our narcissism, or our refusal to stand up tall for justice and freedom in the world.

Apathy | Better | Freedom | Justice | Kindness | Praise | Will | World |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his tastes, by his distastes, by the stories he tells, by his gait, by the motion of his eye, by the look of his house, of his chamber; for nothing on earth is solitary, but everything hath affinities infinite.

Books | Earth | Man | Nothing | Praise |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The judge weighs the arguments and puts a brave face on the matter, and since there must be a decision, decides as he can, and hopes he has done justice and given satisfaction to the community.

Decision | Justice |

René Descartes

For just as faith teaches us that the supreme felicity of the other life consists only in this contemplation of the Divine Majesty, so we continue to learn by experience that a similar meditation, though incomparably less perfect, causes us to enjoy the greatest satisfaction of which we are capable of in this life.

Contemplation | Experience | Faith | Life | Life | Meditation | Contemplation | Learn |

Saint Francis de Sales NULL

Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.

Angels | Good | Praise | Friends |

Talmud or The Talmud NULL

The highest praise is silence. Even a pearl of infinite value, any praise given it detracts from it.

Praise | Silence |

W. E. B. Du Bois, fully William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

The satisfaction with your work, even at its best, will never be complete, since nothing on earth can be perfect. The forward pace of the world which you are pushing will be painfully slow. But what of that: the difference between a hundred and a thousand years is less than you now think. But doing what must be done – that is eternal, even when it walks with poverty.

Earth | Eternal | Nothing | Poverty | Will | Work | World |

W. E. B. Du Bois, fully William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work brings you and the world’s need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get. Without this – with work which you despise, which bores you and which the world does not need – this life is hell.

Despise | Heaven | Hell | Life | Life | Need | Work | World |

Thomas Wilson

He who loves praise loves temptation.

Praise | Temptation |

William Hazlitt

Let a man’s talents and virtues be what they may, we only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself. We cannot enjoy the good qualities of a friend if he seems to be none the better for them.

Better | Friend | Good | Man | Qualities | Society | Society |

W. Somerset Maugham, fully William Somerset Maugham

Unless love is passion, it's not love, but something else; and passion thrives not on satisfaction but on impediment.

Love | Passion |

C. S. Peirce, fully Charles Sanders Peirce

Few persons care to study logic, because everybody conceives himself to be proficient enough in the art of reasoning already. But I observe that this satisfaction is limited to one’s own ratiocination, and does not extend to that of other men.

Art | Care | Enough | Logic | Men | Study | Art |

Elias Canetti

One should use praise to recognize what one is not.

Praise |