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

Eliyahu de Vidas,

When your property or possessions sustain some damage or loss, work on yourself to accept the Almighty’s judgment with love. Realize you were born without any belongings and you will eventually leave the world without belongings. You need not identify with your possessions since they are not an integral part of you.

Character | Judgment | Love | Need | Possessions | Property | Will | Work | World |

Ivan Chen

If you adorn yourself with the highest virtue, the whole world will follow you.

Character | Virtue | Virtue | Will | World |

William Cowper

A moral, sensible and well-bred man will not affront me, and no other can.

Affront | Character | Man | Will |

Eliyahu de Vidas,

Set aside an amount of money that you will give away if you become angry. Be sure it is a sufficient amount of money to make you think twice before becoming angry.

Character | Money | Will | Think |

Cyrus the Great, aka Cyrus the Elder, Cyrus II or Cyrus of Persia NULL

All men have their frailties; and whoever looks for a friend without imperfections, will never find what he seeks. We love ourselves notwithstanding our faults, and we ought to love our friends in like manner.

Character | Frailties | Friend | Looks | Love | Men | Will | Friends |

Maria Edgeworth

We may make our future by the best use of the present. There is no moment like the present; not only so, but, moreover, there is no moment at all, that is; no instant force and energy, but in the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards.

Character | Energy | Force | Future | Hope | Man | Present | Will |

Elizabeth F. Ellet, fully Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet

The pang that wrings the heart to-day, time’s touch will heal to-morrow.

Character | Day | Heart | Time | Will |

George Crabbe

Wine is like anger; for it make us strong; blind and impatient; and leads us wrong; the strength is quickly lost; we feel the error long.

Anger | Character | Error | Strength | Wrong |

Henry Pomeroy Davison

The simple virtues of willingness, readiness, alertness and courtesy will carry a young man farther than mere smartness.

Character | Courtesy | Man | Will |

John Dewey

Scientific principles and laws do not lie on the surface of nature. They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active, and elaborate technique of inquiry... Pure reasoning as a means of arriving at truth is like the spider who spins a web out of himself. The web is orderly and elaborate, but is s only a trap.

Character | Inquiry | Means | Nature | Principles | Truth |

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans

The human soul is hospitable, and will entertain conflicting sentiments and contradictory opinions with much impartiality.

Character | Impartiality | Soul | Will |

Moshe Eliyashuv

When a person feels sad because someone did not show him respect or give him approval, he can say to himself, “What will I really gain if this person does show me respect or does approve of me? What do I really lose by his insulting me?” The answer is: Nothing! Both honor and humiliation are very temporary states, and rarely make practical differences in our lives. So why upset yourself because someone failed to honor you? If a person will internalize the truth of this concept, he will never feel sad about lack of honor or approval.

Character | Honor | Nothing | Respect | Truth | Will | Respect |

Charles Darwin, fully Charles Robert Darwin

At all times throughout the world tribes have supplanted other tribes; and as morality is one important element in their success, the standard of morality and the number of well-endowed men will thus rise and increase.

Character | Important | Men | Morality | Success | Will | World |

Charles Alexander Eastman, first named Ohiyesa

The true Indian sets no price upon either his property or his labor. His generosity is limited only by his strength and ability. He regards it as an honor to be selected for a difficult or dangerous service, and would think it shameful to ask for any reward, saying rather: “Let the person I serve express his thanks according to his own bringing up and his sense of honor.”

Ability | Character | Generosity | Honor | Labor | Price | Property | Reward | Sense | Service | Strength | Think |

Nathaniel Emmons

Death stamps the characters and conditions of men for eternity. As death finds them in this world, so will they be in the next.

Character | Death | Eternity | Men | Will | World |

William J. Donovan, fully William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan

Our moral strength is in ourselves, in our patience, in our courage, in our decision and in our resolution.

Character | Courage | Decision | Patience | Resolution | Strength |

Charles Noel Douglas

Virtue hath some persevereness, for she will neither believe her good nor other’s ill.

Character | Good | Virtue | Virtue | Will |

M. V. Drake

When all our hopes are gone 'tis well our hands must still keep toiling on for others' sake. For strength to bear is found in duty alone, and he is blest indeed who learns to make the joy of others cure his own heartache.

Character | Duty | Joy | Strength |