Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

War

"The government is tottering. We must deal it the death blow at any cost. To delay action is the same as death." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"The revolutionary way is the way of quick amputation, which is the least painful to the proletariat, the way of the direct removal of the decomposing parts, the way of fewest concessions to and least consideration for the monarchy and the disgusting, vile, rotten and contaminating institutions which go with it." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"The war of 1914-18 was imperialist (that is, an annexationist, predatory, war of plunder) on the part of both sides; it was a war for the division of the world, for the partition and repartition of colonies and spheres of influence of finance capital." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"The worker is becoming impoverished absolutely, i.e., he is actually becoming poorer than before; he is compelled to live worse, to eat worse, to suffer hunger more, and to live in basements and attics." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament–this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary- constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"Trade unions and strikes cannot help in times of crisis when there is no demand for this “commodity”, they cannot change the conditions which, convert labor-power into a commodity and which doom the masses of working people to dire need and unemployment. To change these conditions, a revolutionary struggle against the whole existing social and political system is necessary; the industrial crisis will convince very many workers of the justice of this statement." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"We would like to hope that developments in world socialism will increasingly remove the grounds for this difference between us." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"What the Soviet Constitution gives us no other state has been able to give in two hundred years." - Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?" - Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL

"Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination." - Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL

"I can sit and analyze everything and beat myself up and say you don't quite sing as good as you used to, you're writing better songs maybe than you used to, but to me it's just the journey." - Vince Gill

"You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." - Vince Lombardi, fully Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi

"Religion cannot be kept within the bounds of sermons and scriptures. It is a force in itself and it calls for the integration of lands and peoples in harmonious unity. The lands (of earth) wait for those who can discern their rhythms. The peculiar genius of each continent, the placid lakes, all call for relief from the constant burdens of exploitation." - Vine Deloria, fully Vine Victor Deloria, Jr.

"Humor is the first gift to perish in a foreign language." - Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf

"The creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything." - Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf

"We dressed ourselves up as Gauguin pictures and careered round Crosby Hall. Mrs. Whitehead was scandalized. She said that Vanessa and I were practically naked. My mother's ghost was invoked once more... to deplore the fact that I had taken a house in Brunswick Square and had asked young men to share it... Stories began to circulate about parties at which we all undressed in public. Logan Pearsall Smith told Ethel Sands that he knew for a fact that Maynard had copulated with Vanessa on a sofa in the middle of the drawing room. It was a heartless, immoral, cynical society it was said; we were abandoned women and our friends were the most worthless of young men." - Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf

"I wondered if he was looking up at that same moon, far away, and thinking of me as I was thinking of him." - Vera Mary Brittain

"Politics is the executive expression of human immaturity." - Vera Mary Brittain

"Romans, never forget that government is your medium! Be this your art:-to practice men in habit of peace, generosity to the conquered, and firmness against aggressors." - Virgil, also Vergil, fully Publius Vergilius Maro NULL

"It is easier to tell our therapist about our sex life than it is to tell our accountant about our finances." - Vicki Robin

"Civilization is humanity developing itself outward from within." - Victor Hugo

"For he knew how to do a little of everything--all badly." - Victor Hugo

"In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge." - Victor Hugo

"Nearly the whole secret of great hearts lies in this word, perseverando. Perseverance is to courage what the wheel is to the lever, it is the perpetual renewing of the fulcrum." - Victor Hugo

"Suspicions are nothing more nor less than wrinkles. Early youth has none. What overwhelms Othello glides over Candide." - Victor Hugo

"The exaggeration of fright deprives facts of their true proportions." - Victor Hugo

"The great outlines and the great sublimity of nature — the cradle of the ocean, the profile of the mountains, the shade of the forests, the blue of the heavens — are composed of elements of intense discord mingled harmoniously together." - Victor Hugo

"During war times not only one should himself take part in it but also encourage the courageous to do so by creating awareness, zeal and enthusiasm for the war in the society." - Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

"Ego is the biggest enemy of humans." - Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

"Indra only blesses those who perform good deeds, tread on the righteous path and perform religious sacrifices." - Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

"I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by your menaces. I am not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and filth and vermin and foul air, like any other man of refinement; also, I freely admit, when I see a line of a hundred policeman with drawn revolvers flung across a street to keep anyone from coming onto private property to hear my feeble voice, I am somewhat disturbed in my nerves. But I have a conscience and a religious faith, and I know that our liberties were not won without suffering, and may be lost again through our cowardice. I intend to do my duty to my country." - Upton Sinclair, fully Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr.

"Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development." - Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

"The sunlights differ, but there is only one darkness." - Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

"The attitude to foreigners is like the attitude to dogs: Dogs are neither human nor British, but so long as you keep them under control, give them their exercise, feed them, pat them, you will find their wild emotions are amusing, and their characters interesting. [Of London]" - V. S. Pritchett, fully Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett

"Despite all the political misery I am confronted with every day, it still is my profound conviction that the very essence of politics is not dirty; dirt is brought in only by wicked people. I admit that this is an area of human activity where the temptation to advance through unfair actions may be stronger than elsewhere, and which thus makes higher demands on human integrity. But it is not true at all that a politician cannot do without lying or intriguing. That is sheer nonsense, often spread by those who want to discourage people from taking an interest in public affairs. Of course, in politics, just as anywhere else in life, it is impossible and it would not be sensible always to say everything bluntly. Yet that does not mean one has to lie. What is needed here are tact, instinct and good taste." - Václav Havel

"The hope of the world lies in the rehabilitation of the living human being, not just the body but also the soul." - Václav Havel

"Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee of external peace." - Václav Havel

"The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man." - Van Wyck Brooks

"Only a small part of the interior of the memex is devoted to storage, the rest to mechanism. Yet if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill the repository, so he can be profligate and enter material freely." - Vannevar Bush

"Thus science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race. It might be striking to outline the instrumentalities of the future more spectacularly, rather than to stick closely to the methods and elements now known and undergoing rapid development, as has been done here. Technical difficulties of all sorts have been ignored, certainly, but also ignored are means as yet unknown which may come any day to accelerate technical progress as violently as did the advent of the thermionic tube." - Vannevar Bush

"The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

"And when the play is over, it shall be that God will judge with justice and with grace.— aping this art divine, the human race plans for itself on earth a comedy:" - Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

"I find enough mystery in mathematics to satisfy my spiritual needs. I think, for example, that pi is mysterious enough (don't get me started!) without having to worry about God. Or if pi isn't enough, how about fractals? or quantum mechanics?" - Tom Lehrer, fully Thomas Andrew Lehrer

"It was a beautiful and striking reply, given by one in affliction, who, when asked how it was that he bore it so well, replied, - "It lightens the stroke, I find, to draw near to Him who handles the rod."" - Tryon Edwards

"But the Indias and Chinas are increasingly adding one more thing to low-cost labor and high-power technology: unfettered imagination–that is, high innovative and creative capabilities. They will focus first on solving their own problems with cheap labor, high technology, and high creativity–re-imagining their own futures… So, for the last time, you have been warned. This is not a test." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"I think that we're going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool's errand." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"In a flat world, where value is increasingly created, and complex problems solve, by whom you connect with horizontally, having a high trust society is even more of an advantage." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"It created a global platform that allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, than anything we have ever seen in the history of the world." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"No policy is sustainable without a public that broadly understands why it's necessary and sees the world the way you do..." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"The fact is, parents and schools and cultures can and do shape people. The most important influence in my life, outside of my family, was my high school journalism teacher, Hattie M. Steinberg. She pounded the fundamentals of journalism into her students -- not simply how to write a lead or accurately transcribe a quote but, more important, how to comport yourself in a professional way. She was nearing sixty at the time I had her as my teacher and high school newspaper adviser in the late 1960s. She was the polar opposite of cool, but we hung around her classroom like it was the malt shop and she was Wolfman Jack. None of us could have articulated it then, but it was because we enjoyed being harangued by her, disciplined by her, and taught by her. She was a woman of clarity and principles in an age of uncertainty. I sit up straight just thinking about her!" - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman