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

Owen Flanagan

Moral ambiguity creates mental cramps of various sorts, which lead to reflection, discussion, and argument… Morality resists theoretical unification under either a set of special-purpose rules or single general-purpose rule or principle, such as the categorical imperative or the principle of unity. If this is right, and if it is right because the ends of moral life are plural and heterogeneous in kind and because our practices of moral education rightly reflect this, then we have some greater purchase on why the project of finding a single theoretically satisfying moral theory has failed.

Ambiguity | Argument | Discussion | Education | Ends | Life | Life | Morality | Purpose | Purpose | Reflection | Right | Rule | Unity | Theoretical |

Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu

The principle of nonviolence necessitates complete abstention from exploitation in any form.

Amitai Etzioni, born Welker Falk

We need to recognize that both the society and the individual are essential to a morality which we can use in the next century. If we could enter the next century with a wider recognition of the balance - and get away form either collectivistic excesses or the celebration of radical individualism - I think we’d be better for it.

Balance | Better | Individual | Morality | Need | Society | Society | Think |

David R. Hawkins, fully David Ramon Hawkins

In humans, social conditioning establishes acceptable versus unacceptable behaviors and belief systems. Pejorative denunciations and condemnations are institutionalized, and judgmentalism is supported and encouraged. Behaviors are identified with morality and ethics and simply classified as good versus bad or right versus wrong.

Belief | Ethics | Good | Morality | Right | Wrong |

Stephen Hawking

If we do discover a complete [unified] theory [of the universe], it should be in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God.

Discussion | God | Mind | People | Question | Reason | Time | Universe |

Thomas Jefferson

If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is, that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

Conquest | Mind | Nothing |

Thomas Jefferson

I sincerely believe, with you, that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Money | Posterity |

Thomas Jefferson

I never… believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man.

Man | Morality | Public |

Dietrich von Hildebrand

The splendor and metaphysical reality of morality flashes forth only when the absolute goodness is seen not merely as the platonic idea, but as the living God.

Absolute | God | Morality | Reality |

Fritz Künkel

Immense hidden powers seem to lurk in the unconscious depths of even the most common man - indeed, of all people without exception. It is these powers, when put under pressure, that are responsible for all great creative efforts. The men who make history are those who - consciously or unconsciously - turn the switch on the inner switchboards of human character. Pour out all your fears and anxieties, malicious joy and greed and hatred, and you will be astonished at the terrific amount of power which is pent up in your unconscious mind. We can release this power and transform it from negative into positive power, only by bringing into the open, into the light of consciousness, and by accepting ourselves as we are, even though the mountains of debts seem to crush us. This is the principle of honesty. And it is clear that it can be applied only if connected with the principle of faith.

Character | Consciousness | Faith | Greed | History | Honesty | Joy | Light | Man | Men | Mind | People | Power | Will |

Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love.

Love |

Peter Kropotkin, fully Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin

Anarchism (from the Greek… contrary to authority), the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government – Harmony in such a society not being obtained by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted form the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being.

Authority | Conduct | Government | Harmony | Law | Life | Life | Obedience | Society | Submission | Society | Government |

Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

There is no morality in politics; there is only expediency.

Morality | Politics |

Charles Journet

The principle of causality, limited exclusively to explaining the interconnection of phenomena, and void of any metaphysical significance, has become incapable of making the mind pass from the world to God. Man’s mind, if not his heart, has become godless, and knowledge, or science, has dethroned wisdom.

God | Heart | Knowledge | Man | Mind | Phenomena | Science | Wisdom | World |

Kafū Nagai, pen name for Nagai Sōkichi

Empathy is not merely the basic principle of artistic creation. It is also the only path by which one can reach the truth about life and society.

Empathy | Life | Life | Society | Truth |

Charles W Kegley, Jr.

Kegley’s Principle of Change: It is easier to behave your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of behaving.

Change | Thinking | Think |

Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze

Throw away holiness and wisdom and people will be a hundred times happier. Throw away morality and justice, and people will do the right thing. Throw away industry and profit, and there won’t be any thieves.

Industry | Justice | Morality | People | Right | Will | Wisdom |