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

Charles Reade

If you wish to please people, you must begin by understanding them.

Character | People | Understanding |

Francis Quarles

Of all vices to take heed of drunkenness; other vices are but fruits of disordered affections - this disorders, nay, banishes reason; other vices but impair the soul - this demolishes her two chief faculties, the understanding and the will; other vices make their own way - this makes way for all vices; he that is a drunkard is qualified for all vice.

Character | Reason | Soul | Understanding | Will |

Publius Syrus

Meet an accusation with silence and you make it sharper.

Character | Silence |

James R. Quirk

The value of silence in art is its stimulation to the imagination.

Art | Character | Imagination | Silence | Art | Value |

Elizabeth Sara Sheppard

To feel, to feel exquisitely, is the lot of every man; it is the charm that lends a superstitious joy to fear. But to appreciate belongs to the few; to one or two alone, here and there, the blended passion and understanding that constitute in its essence worship.

Character | Fear | Joy | Man | Passion | Understanding | Worship |

Lord Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

The perfection of virtue is from... long art and management, self-control.

Art | Character | Control | Perfection | Self | Self-control | Virtue | Virtue | Art |

Charles Simmons

Immortality is the greatness of our being; the scene for attaining the fullness and perfection of our existence.

Character | Existence | Greatness | Immortality | Perfection |

Charles Simmons

When the heart is won, the understanding is easily convinced.

Character | Heart | Understanding |

Shimon HaTzaddik

For his entire life he was in the company of wise men and Of all the things beneficial to one’s body, silence is the best. [paraphrase]

Body | Character | Life | Life | Men | Silence | Wise |

Robert Louis Stevenson, fully Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

The correction of silence is what kills; when you know you have transgressed, and your friend says nothing and avoids your eye.

Character | Friend | Nothing | Silence |