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

J. G. Fichte, fully Johann Gottlieb Fichte

What sort of philosophy one chooses depends, therefore, on what sort of man one is; for a philosophical system is not a dead piece of furniture that we can reject or accept as we wish; it is rather a thing animated by the soul of the person who holds it. A person indolent by nature or dulled and distorted by mental servitude, learned luxury, and vanity will never raise himself to the level of idealism.

Character | Idealism | Luxury | Man | Nature | Philosophy | Servitude | Soul | System | Will |

Felix Frankfurter

Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep.

Character | Emotions | Gratitude |

French Student Revolt Graffiti NULL

No one can understand unless, holding to his own nature, he respects the free nature of others.

Character | Nature | Understand |

Nancy Gibbs

Of all ennobling sentiments, patriotism may be the most easily manipulated. On the one hand, it gives powerful expression to what is best in a nation’s character: a commitment to principle, a willingness to sacrifice, a devotion to the community by the choice of the individual. But among its toxic fruits are intolerance, belligerence and blind obedience, perhaps because it blooms most luxuriantly during times of war.

Character | Choice | Commitment | Devotion | Individual | Intolerance | Obedience | Patriotism | Sacrifice | War |

Arnold Geulincx

My will does not produce the motive power to move my limbs. Rather, he who imparted motion to matter, and ordained its laws, shaped my will also; he thus joined together two utterly different things - the movement of matter and the decision of my will in such a way that whenever my will desires some action, the desired bodily movement will occur and vice versa, without there being any causation involved, or any influence of the one upon the other. It is just as if there were two clocks appropriately adjusted with reference to each other and the time of day in such a way that when one struck the hour the other immediately did likewise.

Action | Character | Day | Decision | Influence | Power | Time | Will | Vice |

Madame Émile de Girardin, Delphine de Girardin, née Gay

To love one who loves you, to admire one who admires you, in a word to be the idol of one’s idol - is exceeding the limit of human joy; it is stealing fire from heaven, and deserves death.

Character | Death | Heaven | Joy | Love |

Ellen Goodman

The adult world is... built on the shifting grounds of friendship and competition. The double message of this society and economy are to get along and get ahead. We want our children to fit in and to stand out. We rarely address the conflict between these goals.

Character | Children | Competition | Goals | Society | World | Friendship | Society |

Oveta Culp Hobby

Brotherhood doesn't come in a package. It is not a commodity to be taken down from the shelf with one hand - it is an accomplishment of soul-searching prayer, and perseverance... The spontaneous feeling of brotherhood is a mark of human maturity.

Accomplishment | Brotherhood | Character | Perseverance | Prayer | Soul |

John P. Grier

The biggest gap in the world is the gap between the justice of a cause and the motives of the people pushing it.

Cause | Character | Justice | Motives | People | World |

Armand Hammer

I believe we are here to do good. It is the responsibility of every human being to aspire to do something worthwhile, to make this world a better place than the one he found. Life is a gift, and if we agree to accept it, we must contribute in return. When we fail to contribute, we fail to adequately answer why we are here.

Better | Character | Good | Life | Life | Responsibility | World |

Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland

Home, in one form or another, is the great object of life.

Character | Life | Life | Object |

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Trouble makes us one with every human being in the world.

Character | World |

Mark Hopkins

Indecision is debilitating; it feeds upon itself; it is, one might almost say, habit-forming. Not only that, but it is contagious; it transmits itself to others.

Character | Habit | Indecision |

Avraham Grodzinski

Suffering has the ability to weaken one’s desires. It can separate a person from cleaving to material matters. When one is in the midst of suffering, he can see it is possible for him to live without gratifying his desires, and without honor and approval. Little by little, he becomes free from those things he was previously bound to. His suffering can help him open his eyes to see his true self and internal wealth.

Ability | Character | Honor | Little | Self | Suffering | Wealth |

Roswell Dwight Hitchcock

He only is great at heart who floods the world with a great affection. He only is great of mind who stirs the world with great thoughts. He only is great of will who does something to shape the world to a great career. And he is greatest who does the most of all these things and does them best.

Character | Heart | Mind | Will | World |

Hans Hoffman

Art and science create a balance to material life and enlarge the world of living experience. Art leads to a more profound concept of life, because art itself is a profound expression of feeling.

Art | Balance | Character | Experience | Life | Life | Science | Wisdom | World | Art |