Great Throughts Treasury

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

Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, aka Saint John Paul the Great NULL

Polish-born Pope, Improved Catholic Church's Relations with Judaism, Islam the Eastern Orthodox Church and Anglican Communion, praised for his orthodox Catholic stances

"To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others."

"To you parents falls the responsibility for forming and educating your children to be people of peace: for this purpose, you in the first place must be workers for peace."

"True holiness does not mean a flight from the world; rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel in everyday life, in the family, at school and at work, and in social and political involvement."

"Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men."

"True compassion leads to sharing another’s pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we True freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does not have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom and peace. "

"Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore... prove ultimately futile."

"Violence kills what it intends to create."

"We are all called upon to do everything possible to banish from society not only the tragedy of war but also every violation of human rights, beginning with the indisputable right to life, which every person enjoys from the very moment of conception."

"Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity, the life, the freedom of human beings. Violence is a crime against humanity, for it destroys the very fabric of society … On my knees I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the ways of peace."

"What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust. [After his visit to his would-be assassin]"

"We are asked to love and honor the life of every man and woman and to work with perseverance We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the culture. We must emphasize and give prominence to the primacy of human beings in the production process, the primary of human beings over things. "

"War is a defeat for humanity."

"Where self-interest is suppressed, it is replaced by a burdensome system of bureaucratic control that dries up the wellspring of initiative and creativity. "

"Without wonder, men and women would lapse into deadening routine and little by little would become incapable of a life which is genuinely personal. "

"You men and women in public life, called to serve the common good, exclude no one from your concerns; take special care of the weakest sectors of society."

"Work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons."

"You will reciprocally promise love, loyalty and matrimonial honesty. We only want for you this day that these words constitute the principle of your entire life and that with the help of divine grace you will observe these solemn vows that today, before God, you formulate."

"Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire."

"You are called to stand up for life! To respect and defend the mystery of life. "

"You are priests, not social or political leaders. Let us not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel through an exaggerated interest in the wide field of temporal problems. "