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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Ah, how happy would many lives be if individuals troubled themselves as little about other people’s affairs as about their own!

Character | Happy | Little | People |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

The lack of wealth is easily repaired; but the poverty of the soul is irreparable.

Character | Poverty | Soul | Wealth |

John T. McNicholas, fully John Timothy McNicholas

The God-given rights of parents are not understood or are ignored by our secularist educators and by many school administrators who, in the delusion of sovereignty, act as though they, not the parents, have complete control of the education of the child.

Character | Control | Delusion | Education | God | Parents | Rights |

William Milne

Contentment furnishes constant joy; much covetousness, constant grief. To the contented, even poverty is joy; to the discontented, even wealth is a vexation.

Character | Contentment | Grief | Joy | Poverty | Wealth |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Here is a wonder: we have many more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to create it than to understand it. On a certain low level it can be judged by precepts and by art. But the good, supreme, divine poetry is above the rules and reason.

Art | Character | Good | Poetry | Reason | Wonder | Understand |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another’s than our own. Man can in nothing fix and conform himself to his mere necessity. Of pleasure, wealth and power he grasps at more than he can hold; his greediness is incapable of moderation.

Character | Man | Moderation | Necessity | Nothing | Pleasure | Power | Wealth | Think |

Nachman of Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Bratslav, Nachman from Uman NULL

You possess the ability to control your thoughts. Even if your thoughts wander, you can bring them back and focus on what you wish.

Ability | Character | Control | Focus |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished.

Character | History |

Ming Sum Paou Keën

Contentment furnishes constant joy. Much covetousness, constant grief. To the contented, even poverty is joy. To the discontented, even wealth is a vexation.

Character | Contentment | Grief | Joy | Poverty | Wealth |

Thomas Paine

'Tis not in numbers but in unity that our great strength lies.

Character | Strength | Unity |

Saint-John Perse, first Saint-Leger Leger, pseudonyms of Alexis Leger

There is no history but that of the soul, no peace but that of the soul.

Character | History | Peace | Soul |

Publius Syrus

An angry lover tells himself many lies.

Character |

Thomas Paine

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

Business | Character | Conscience | Distress | Heart | Little | Love | Man | Principles | Reflection | Smile | Strength | Will | Business |