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

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

The only thing that can stop hair from falling ... is the floor.

Death | Time |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

There is good news from Washington today. Congress is deadlocked and can't act.

History | Reading |

Walt Disney, fully Walter Elias "Walt" Disney

The era we are living in today is a dream of coming true.

Winning |

Wilhelm Reich

I came to consider the instinct as nothing more than the motor aspect of pleasure.

Energy | Existence | Human race | Life | Life | Race | Science | Work |

Wilhelm Reich

He had a great capacity to arouse irrational hatred obviously, and that’s because his ideas were radical in the most extreme sense of the word “radical.” His ideas have something to offend everybody, and he ended up becoming the only heretic in American history whose books were literally burned by the government.

Energy | Error | Existence | Meaning |

Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

Joy, shipmate, joy (Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry,) our life is closed, our life begins, the long, long anchorage we leave, the ship is clear at last, she leaps! Joy, shipmate, joy!

Walter Lippmann

It is all very well to talk about being the captain of your soul. It is hard, and only a few heroes, saints, and geniuses have been the captains of their souls for any extended period of their lives. Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort which it brings.

Absolute | Censor | Control | Force | Mind | Right | Sense | Size | Govern |

Walter Savage Landor

There is a mountain and a wood between us, where the lone shepherd and late bird have seen us morning and noon and eventide repass. Between us now the mountain and the wood seem standing darker than last year they stood, and say we must not cross--alas! alas!

Eternal | Knowing | Labor | Life | Life | Time | Will |

Warren Bennis, fully Warren Gamaliel Bennis

Great Groups need to know that the person at the top will fight like a tiger for them.

Change | Life | Life | Meaning | Opportunity | People | Search | Think |

Warren Bennis, fully Warren Gamaliel Bennis

Great Groups are vivid Utopias. They are a picture of the way organizations ought to look -- sort of like a set of aspirations and a graphic illustration of what's possible. So how do we, in our mundane, quotidian organizations, create these things? I think there are a number of factors that we can look at. Perhaps the key factor, and it's almost a banal thing to say, is finding a meaning in what you do. That is, how do you make people feel that what they're doing is somewhat equivalent to a search for the Holy Grail? This is more than just having a vision. You can see the difference in the often-cited way in which Steve Jobs brought in John Sculley to take over Apple. At the time, Sculley was destined to be the head of Pepsico. The clincher came when Jobs asked him, “How many more years of your life do you want to spend making colored water when you can have an opportunity to come here and change the world?”

Heart | People | Success | Work |

Warren Bennis, fully Warren Gamaliel Bennis

Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.

Warren Bennis, fully Warren Gamaliel Bennis

Innovation by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires 'courageous patience'.

Art | Judgment | Knowing | People | Art | Leadership |

Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha

This combination virtually assures both Berkshire and General Re shareholders that they will have a better future than if the two companies operated separately,

Destiny | Motives | Order | Value |

Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer

If you've ever felt inspired by a purpose or calling, you know the feeling of spirit working through you.

Learn |

Washington Irving

There are moments of mingled sorrow and tenderness, which hallow the caresses of affection.

Character | Marriage |

Wei Wu Wei, pen name for Terence James Stannus Gray

In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow - and that is likely to hurt.

Mind | Will |

Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer

There is a voice in the Universe urging us to remember our purpose for being on this great Earth. This is the voice of inspiration, which is within each and every one of us.

Evidence | Relationship | Thinking | Wrong |

Wayne Gretsky, fully Wayne Douglas Gretzky, “The Great One”

The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.

People |

Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer

The only way we know we are dreaming is to awaken.

Wendell Berry

The Earth is what we all have in common.

Experience | Habit | Knowledge | Little |