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

Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.

Blame | Daring | Fortune | Greatness | Guilt | Wisdom |

Richard Savage

By woe the soul to daring action steals; by woe in plaintless patience it excels.

Action | Daring | Patience | Soul | Wisdom | Woe |

William Henry Beveridge

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

Glory | Government | Man | Object | Peace | War | Government | Happiness |

Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

The art of art, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

Art | Glory | Light | Simplicity | Wisdom | Art |

William Wirt

He is a great simpleton who imagines that the chief power of wealth is to supply wants. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it creates more wants than it supplies. Excessive wealth is neither glory nor happiness.

Glory | Power | Wants | Wealth | Wisdom |

James Baldwin, fully James Arthur Baldwin

Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished or a privilege he has long possessed that he is set free — he has set himself free — for higher dreams, for greater privileges.

Bitterness | Change | Daring | Future | Man | Surrender | Will | World | Loss | Privilege |

Winston Churchill, fully Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

The glory of human nature lies in our seeming capacity to exercise conscious control of our own destiny.

Capacity | Control | Destiny | Glory | Human nature | Nature |

R. W. Dixon, fully Richard Watson Dixon

THERE is a soul above the soul of each, A mightier soul, which yet to each belongs: There is a sound made of all human speech, And numerous as the concourse of all songs: And in that soul lives each, in each that soul, Though all the ages are its lifetime vast; Each soul that dies, in its most sacred whole Receiveth life that shall forever last. And thus forever with a wider span Humanity o’erarches time and death; Man can elect the universal man, And live in life that ends not with his breath: And gather glory that increase still Till Time his glass with Death’s last dust shall fill.

Ends | Glory | Life | Life | Sacred | Soul | Sound | Time |

G. W. F. NULL

Why is it that only upon death, and at the funeral, we fully rejoice in the glory of each person’s life and capture the true spirit of love?

Death | Glory | Life | Life | Love | Spirit |

Os Guiness

The decisive part of our seeking is not our human ascent to God, but his descent to us. Without God’s descent there is no human ascent. The secret of the quest lies not in our brilliance but in His grace. What puts us on the way is not the daring and ingenuity of our discovery of paths, but the disclosure of the one who has preceded us on all our paths.

Daring | Discovery | God | Grace | Ingenuity | Discovery | Ingenuity |

Francesco Guicciardini

Ambition is not a reprehdnsible quality, nor are ambitious men to be censured, if they seek glory through honorable and honest means. In fact, it is they who produce great and excellent works. Those who lack this passion are cold spirits, inclined towards laziness than activity. But ambition is pernicious and detestable when it has as its sole end power.

Ambition | Glory | Laziness | Means | Men | Passion | Power | Ambition |

Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze

The sage does not display himself, therefore he shines. He does not approve himself therefore he is noted. He does not praise himself, therefore he has merit. He does not glory in himself, therefore he excels.

Display | Glory | Merit | Praise |

Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller

Security is almost an illusion (or superstition). It does not exist in nature, nor does humankind as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Adventure | Danger | Daring | Experience | Illusion | Life | Life | Nature | Nothing | Security | Danger |