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

John-Roger & Peter McWilliams NULL

Fear breeds lack of experience, lack of experience breeds ignorance, ignorance breeds more fear. It is a vicious cycle.

Character | Experience | Fear | Ignorance |

Saint Jerome, aka Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymous, Hierom or Jerom NULL

Let us learn upon earth those things which can call us to heaven.

Character | Earth | Heaven | Learn |

David Hume

The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.

Character | Life | Life | Man | Universe |

Aldous Leonard Huxley

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

Character | Self | Universe |

Lyndon Johnson, fully Lyndon Baines Johnson, aka LBJ

In this age when there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war, we must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint.

Age | Character | Obligation | Peace | Restraint | Strength | War |

David Hume

Disbelief in futurity loosens in a great measure the ties of morality, and may be for that reason pernicious to the peace of civil society.

Character | Disbelief | Morality | Peace | Reason | Society |

Yosef Y. Hurwitz

Many people are mistaken about how they can improve their situation. They think they will have peace of mind only when they have obtained everything they desire. But this is erroneous. Gratifying desires does not bring lasting satisfaction. The only path to achieve satisfaction is to stop desiring more things. As long as a person is unable to control his desiring, his problems will not be overcome... The only way to find real satisfaction in life is to stop desiring what is beyond your reach.

Character | Control | Desire | Life | Life | Mind | Peace | People | Problems | Will | Think |

Eleazar Rokeach, Eleazor ben Judah ben Kalonymus, aka Eleazar of Worms

Hate ruins the very savor of food, the peace of sleep, all reverence in the soul.

Character | Hate | Peace | Reverence | Soul |

Garrison Keillor, fully Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor

The only moral virtue of war is that it compels the capitalist system to look itself in the face and admit it is a fraud. It compels the present society to admit that it has no morals it will not sacrifice for gain.

Character | Fraud | Present | Sacrifice | Society | System | Virtue | Virtue | War | Will | Society |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when it may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, miscalculation or madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

Accident | Character | Day | Madness | Man | War | Weapons | Woman | Child |

Walter Kerr, fully Walter Francis Kerr

The work we are doing is more or less the work we meant to do in life [but] it does not yield us the feeling of accomplishment we had expected... If I were required to put into a single sentence my own explanation of the state of our hearts, heads, and nerves, I would do it this way: we are vaguely wretched because we are leading half-lives, half-heartedly, and with only one-half of our minds actively, engaged in making contact with the universe about us.

Accomplishment | Character | Life | Life | Universe | Work |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

Character | Democracy | Ignorance | Security | Wisdom |

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Character | Ignorance | Nothing | Stupidity | World |

Juvenal, fully Decimus Junius Juvenalis NULL

Everything on earth is praised by somebody, criticized by somebody else - but loyalty and truthfulness are praised by all.

Character | Earth | Loyalty | Loyalty |

Karl Jones

The practice of a totally unreserved awareness is the road to absolute inner acceptance. This acceptance unblocks the space where selfless love and fearlessness are revealed. And the inner peace from which they arise is the way to effective outer peacemaking.

Absolute | Acceptance | Awareness | Character | Love | Peace | Practice | Space | Awareness |

Lyndon Johnson, fully Lyndon Baines Johnson, aka LBJ

No man should think that peace comes easily. Peace does not come by merely wanting it, or shouting for it, or marching down Main Street for it. Peace is built brick by brick, mortared by the stubborn effort and the total energy and imagination of able and dedicated men. And it is built in the living faith that, in the end, man can and will master his own destiny.

Character | Destiny | Effort | Energy | Faith | Imagination | Man | Men | Peace | Will | Wisdom | Think |