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

Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

Your disposition will be suitable to that which you most frequently think on; for the soul is, as it were, tinged with the color and complexion of its own thoughts.

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Character | Soul | Will | Think |

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Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, aka Rabbi Avraham Maimuni, aka Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha-Rambam NULL

Be careful not to consider yourself wicked. A person who considers himself wicked will not try to improve and is likely to become worse than he is now.

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Character | Will |

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Ernest Becker

Man transcends death by finding meaning in his life... It is the burning desire for the creature to count... What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.

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Character | Death | Desire | Insignificance | Life | Life | Man | Meaning |

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Bias NULL

It is better to decide between our enemies than our friends; for one of our friends will most likely become our enemy; but on the other hand, one of your enemies will probably become your friend.

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Better | Character | Enemy | Friend | Will | Friends |

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William Bolitho, pen name for Charles William Ryall

You need more tact in the dangerous art of giving than in any other social action.

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Action | Art | Character | Giving | Need | Tact | Art |

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Christian Nestell Bovee

Courage enlarges, cowardice diminishes resources. In desperate straits the fears of the timid aggravate the dangers that imperil the brave. For cowards the road of desertion should be left open. They will carry over to the enemy nothing but their fears. The poltroon, like the scabbard, is an encumbrance when once the sword is drawn.

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Character | Courage | Cowardice | Enemy | Nothing | Will | Wisdom |

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Georg Brandes, fully Georg Morris Cohen Brandes

The crowd will follow a leader who marches twenty paces ahead of them, but if he is a thousand paces ahead of them, they will neither see nor follow him.

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Character | Will | Wisdom | Leader |

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Phillips Brooks

No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle, pure and good, without the world being the better for it, without somebody being helped an comforted by the very existence of that goodness.

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Better | Character | Existence | Good | Man | Woman | World |

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Buddha, Gautama Buddha, or The Buddha, also Gotama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha and Buddha Śākyamuni NULL

Who ever lives looking for pleasure only, his senses uncontrolled, immoderate in his enjoyments, idle and weak, the tempter will certainly overcome him, as the wind blows down a weak tree.

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Character | Pleasure | Will |

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Buddha, Gautama Buddha, or The Buddha, also Gotama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha and Buddha Śākyamuni NULL

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

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Character | Death | Life | Life | People | Wise |

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Buddha, Gautama Buddha, or The Buddha, also Gotama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha and Buddha Śākyamuni NULL

Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart, it will not benefit me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the wise man becomes full of good, even if he gather it little by little.

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Character | Good | Heart | Little | Man | Will | Wise | Think |

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Hugh Blair

Life will frequently languish, even in the hands of the busy if they have some employment subsidiary to that which forms their main pursuit.

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Character | Life | Life | Will |

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Henry George Bohn

He that is master of himself will soon be master of others.

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Character | Will |

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Abel Bonnard

The moral life of any people rises or falls with the vitality or decay of its religious life.

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Character | Life | Life | People |

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Abel Bonnard

Emphasis on educational and vocational rehabilitation must not be allowed to overshadow the profound need that will exist for spiritual reorientation.

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Character | Need | Will |

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