Great Throughts Treasury

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

Joseph Fort Newton

American Clergy, Baptist Minister, Masonic Author

"An egotist is not a man who thinks too much of himself; he is a man who thinks too little of other people."

"People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges."

"Hate never builds anything; it can only blast."

"Zeal without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the dark."

"Now what we have, but what we use, not what we see, but what we choose, these are the things that mar or bless the sum of human happiness."

"To live well we must have a faith fit to live by, a self fit to live with, and a work fit to live for."

"Belief is a truth held in the mind. Faith is a fire in the heart."

"Some things cannot be measured - we do not think a ton of truth, a bushel of beauty or an inspiration a mile long."

"To be happy is easy enough if we give ourselves, forgive others, and live with thanksgiving. No self-centered person, no ungrateful soul can ever be happy, much less make anyone else happy. Life is giving, not getting."

"We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us - how we take it, what we do with it - and that is what really counts in the end. How to take the raw stuff of life and make it a thing of worth and beauty - that is the test of living."

"The one perfect definition of religion is The Life of God in the Soul of Man."

"To be happy is easy enough if we give ourselves , forgive others, and live with thanksgiving. No self-centered person, no ungrateful soul can ever be happy, much less make anyone else happy. Life is giving, not getting."

"A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last."