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

Mary Kay Ash, fully Mary Kathlyn Wagner Ash

There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. We all have a choice. You can decide which type of person you want to be. I have always chosen to be in the first group.

Choice | People | Wonder | World |

Neil Armstrong, fully Neil Alden Armstrong

Man must understand his universe in order to understand his destiny. Mystery, however, is a very necessary ingredient in our lives. Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis for man’s desire to understand. Who knows what mysteries will be solved in our lifetime, and what new riddles will become the challenge of the new generations? Science has not mastered prophesy. We predict too much for next year yet far too little for the next ten. Responding to challenge is one of democracy’s great strengths. Our successes in space lead us to hope that this strength can be used in the next decade in the solution of many of our planet’s problems.

Challenge | Democracy | Desire | Destiny | Hope | Little | Man | Mystery | Order | Problems | Science | Space | Strength | Universe | Will | Wonder | Understand |

Neil Armstrong, fully Neil Alden Armstrong

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.

Desire | Man | Mystery | Wonder |

Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu NULL

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway… You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.

Adventure | Beauty | Challenge | Duty | Good | Happy | Life | Life | Luck | Opportunity | People | Play | Promise | Serenity | Sorrow | Struggle | Tragedy | Will | Friends |

Ned Rorem

Sooner or later you've heard all your best friends have to say. Then comes the tolerance of real love.

Love | Friends |

Norman Cousins

Education tends to be diagrammatic and categorical, opening up no sluices in the human imagination of the wonder or beauty of their unique estate in the cosmos. Little wonder that it become so easy for our young to regard human hurt casually or to be uninspired by the magic of sensitivity.

Beauty | Education | Imagination | Little | Magic | Regard | Unique | Wonder | Beauty |

Plato NULL

If you are wise, all men will be your friends and kindred, for you will be useful and good; but if you are not wise, neither father, nor mother, nor kindred; nor any one else, will be your friends.

Father | Good | Men | Mother | Will | Wise | Friends |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is cheerfulness, and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations. Shall not the heart which has received so much trust the power by which it lives?

Beauty | Cheerfulness | Courage | Heart | Power | Trust | Wonder | Beauty |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.

Enemy | Friend | Will | Friends |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The truth, the hope, of any time must be sought in the minorities. Michael Angelo was the conscience of Italy. We grow free with his name, and find it ornamental now, but in his own day his friends were few.

Conscience | Day | Hope | Time | Truth | Friends |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men love to wonder and that is the seed of our science.

Love | Men | Science | Wonder |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The soul contains in itself the event that shall presently befall it, for the event is only the actualizing of its thoughts. It is no wonder that particular dreams and presentiments should fall out and be prophetic.

Dreams | Soul | Wonder |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The glory of Friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship. My friends have come unsought. The great God gave them to me.

Glory | God | Inspiration | Joy | Smile | Trust | Friendship | God | Friends |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it. There is no event greater in life than the appearance of new persons about our hearth, except it be the progress of the character which draws them.

Appearance | Character | Life | Life | Progress | Friends |

Richard Jefferies, fully John Richard Jefferies

The wonder is here, not there; now, not to be, now always.

Wonder |