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

Richard Carlson

You have a choice in how you respond to life. You can learn to relate to your thinking as well as your circumstances in new ways. With practice, making these choices will translate into a more relaxed self.

Choice | Circumstances | Life | Life | Practice | Self | Thinking | Will | Learn |

John Whitmore, fully Sir John Whitmore

All instruction, all criticism, every reduction in choice, every manifestation of hierarchy, every act of secrecy subtly lowers people’s self-belief. Coaching, trust, openness, respect, authentic praise, freedom of choice and, of course, success raise it.

Belief | Choice | Criticism | Freedom | Openness | People | Praise | Respect | Secrecy | Self | Success | Trust |

Willa A. Foster, also attributed to William A. Foster

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.

Accident | Choice | Effort | Intention | Wise |

Alan Cohen

Trust frees you to see the wisdom of the moment. The goodness of life is invincible, and in Justice is your assurance of success. The laws of consciousness work consistently for your highest good. They offer you consolation and guidance. You now embody the choice to earn your goal, which is at hand.

Choice | Consciousness | Consolation | Good | Guidance | Justice | Life | Life | Success | Trust | Wisdom | Work |

Albert Camus

The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. Everything is permitted does not mean that nothing is forbidden. The absurd merely confers an equivalence on the consequences of those actions.

Ability | Absurd | Bitterness | Choice | Consequences | Giving | God | Life | Life | Meaning | Nothing | God |

Archibald MacLeish

We have no choice but to be guilty. God is unthinkable if we were innocent.

Choice | God | God |

Arthur W Osborn

[Man’s] self-conscious existence as man forces on him a choice of uses for his faculties... This choice is what is called free will. Free will, therefore, not only a prerogative but an obligation for man. Free will thus understood, has nothing to do with destiny. It is a power which man is compelled by his own nature to use, whether the use he makes of it is predestined or not... the responsibility of deciding rests with me just the same whether the outcome is predetermined or not. If it is predetermined, it is my own past habit-forming and character-forming decisions in this and previous lifetimes which have predetermined it; and this decision in its turn will help to condition my mind, thus determining future ones.

Character | Choice | Decision | Destiny | Existence | Free will | Future | Habit | Man | Mind | Nature | Nothing | Obligation | Past | Power | Responsibility | Self | Will |

Arthur Asher Miller

Where choice begins, Paradise ends, innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action?

Absence | Action | Choice | Ends | Innocence | Need | Paradise |

Author Unknown NULL

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

Cause | Choice | Good | Man |

Author Unknown NULL

– Each man has a choice in life: he may approach it as a creator or a critic, a love or a hater, a giver or a taker.

Choice | Critic | Life | Life | Love | Man |

Author Unknown NULL

Each man has a choice in life: He may approach it as a creator or critic, a love or hater, a giver or taker.

Choice | Critic | Life | Life | Love | Man |

Blaise Pascal

Since a choice must be made, we must see which is the least bad. You have two things to lose: truth and happiness. You have two things at stake: your reason and your happiness. And you have two things to avoid: error and misery. Since you must necessarily choose, your reason is no more affronted by choosing one rather than the other. How about your happiness? Let us weigh up the gain and loss in calling heads that God exists. If you win, you win everything. If you lose, you lose nothing. So do not hesitate: wager that God exists.

Choice | Error | God | Nothing | Reason | Truth | Loss | God |