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

Richard Whately

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, "What is truth?"

Character | Inquiry | Truth |

Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

Character | Man | Will |

Simeon ben Yohai, aka Simon ben Yohai or Rashbi or Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai

A liar's punishment is that he is not believed even when he tells the truth.

Character | Punishment | Truth |

John Austin

The existence of law is one thing; its merit or demerit is another.

Existence | Law | Merit | Wisdom |

Babylonian Talmud

The reward of studying is understanding.

Reward | Understanding | Wisdom |

George Bancroft

The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority.

Authority | Government | Opinion | People | Property | Public | Wisdom | Government |

Charles Pierre Baudelaire

How many years of fatigue and punishment it takes to learn the simple truth that work, that disagreeable thing, is the only way of not suffering in life, or at all events, of suffering less.

Events | Life | Life | Punishment | Suffering | Truth | Wisdom | Work | Learn |

Babylonian Talmud

This is the punishment of a liar: He is not believed, even when he speaks the truth.

Punishment | Truth | Wisdom |

William Garden Blaikie

The law of the Sabbath is the keystone of the arch of public morals; take it away, and the whole fabric falls.

Law | Public | Sabbath | Wisdom |

Jean de La Bruyère

Between good sense and good taste there is the same difference as between cause and effect.

Cause | Good | Sense | Taste | Wisdom |

Brillat-Savarin, fully Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin NULL

In compelling man to eat that he may live, Nature gives an appetite to invite him, and pleasure to reward him.

Appetite | Man | Nature | Pleasure | Reward | Wisdom |

Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL

Keep the middle path of strength and virtue, lest you be overwhelmed by misfortune or corrupted by pleasant fortune. All that falls short or goes too far ahead, has contempt for happiness, and gains not the reward for labor done. It rests in your own hands what shall be the nature of the fortune which you choose to form for yourself. For all fortune which seems difficult, either exercises virtue, or corrects or punishes vice.

Contempt | Fortune | Labor | Misfortune | Nature | Reward | Strength | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | Misfortune |

Christian Nestell Bovee

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

Merit | Politics | Position | Wisdom |

Brown v. Board of Education NULL

Today education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

Awakening | Citizenship | Education | Good | Important | Life | Life | Opportunity | Public | Right | Service | Society | Training | Wisdom | Child |

Vera Mary Brittain

There is an abiding beauty which may be appreciated by those who will see things as they are and who will ask no reward except to see.

Beauty | Reward | Will | Wisdom | Beauty |

Brown v. Board of Education NULL

We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Doctrine | Education | Public | Reason | Wisdom |