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

Alfred Whitney Griswold

If appeasing our enemies is not the answer, neither is hating them... Somewhere between the extremes of appeasement and hate there is a place for courage and strength to express themselves in magnanimity and charity, and this is the place we must find.

Charity | Courage | Hate | Magnanimity | Strength |

Anne Frank, fully Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank

How true Daddy’s words were when he said: “All children must look after their own upbringing.” Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.

Advice | Character | Children | Good | Parents | Right | Words |

Aristotle NULL

The blind are more understanding than the deaf because hearing exerts a direct influence on the formation of moral character, which is not immediately true of what is seen. The human soul can also become diffused by way of the eye whereas what is heard results in focus and concentration.

Character | Focus | Influence | Soul | Understanding |

Author Unknown NULL

Unwelcome are the loiterer, who makes appointments he never keeps; the consulter, who asks advice he never follows; the boaster, who seeks for praise he does not merit; the complainer, who whines only to be pitied; the talker, who talks only because he loves to talk always; the profane and obscene jester, whose words defile; the drunkard, whose insanity has tot the better of his reason; and the tobacco-chewer and smoker, who poisons the atmosphere and nauseates others.

Advice | Better | Insanity | Merit | Praise | Reason | Words |

Baltasar Gracián

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Man | Wise |

Ben Sira

Be swift in hearing but slow in replying.

Baltasar Gracián

Know how to use your enemies. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Man | Wise |

Baltasar Gracián

Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to any one... A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.

Advice | Friend | Need | Will |

Baltasar Gracián

Trust the friends of to-day as if they will be enemies to-morrow.

Day | Trust | Will | Friends |

Charles Caleb Colton

The profoundly wise do not declaim against superficial knowledge in others, so much as the profoundly ignorant; on the contrary, they would rather assist it with their advice that overwhelm it with their contempt; for they know that there was a period when even a Bacon or a Newton were superficial, and that he who has little knowledge is far more likely to get more that has none.

Advice | Contempt | Knowledge | Little | Wise |

Charles Caleb Colton

When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.

Advice | Friend | Reading |

Cato the Elder, Marcus Porius Cato, aka Censorius (the Censor), Sapiens (the Wise), Priscus (the Ancient) NULL

Some men are more beholden to their bitterest enemies than to friends who appear to be sweetness itself. The former frequently tell the truth, but the latter never.

Men | Truth | Friends |

Charles Caleb Colton

He that openly tells his friends all that he thinks of them, must expect that they will secretly tell his enemies much that they do not think of him.

Will | Friends | Think |

Charles Caleb Colton

When we feel a strong desire to thrust our advice upon others, it is usually because we suspect their weakness; but we ought rather to suspect our own.

Advice | Desire | Weakness |

Carl Sagan

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

Race |

Charles Caleb Colton

The reason why great men meet with so little pity or attachment in adversity, would seem to be this: the friends of a great man were made by his fortune, his enemies by himself, and revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude.

Adversity | Fortune | Gratitude | Little | Man | Men | Pity | Reason | Revenge | Friends |