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

Simeon ben Azai, sometimes Ben Azai

He who, for the sake of learning, lowers himself by exposing his ignorance, will ultimately be elevated.

Character | Ignorance | Learning | Will |

Saul Bellow

A man is only as good as what he loves.

Character | Good | Man |

Philip S. Berg, originally Feivel Gruberger

Our souls are like streams that can never rest until they once again mingle with the Infinite sea... We are here to earn the beneficence of the Creator. This is a process sometimes too difficult to accomplish in one lifetime, but fortunately we are provided with as many lifetimes as necessary.

Character | Rest |

Henri Bergson, aka Henri-Louis Bergson

It is the whole soul, in fact, that gives rise to the free decision, and the act will be so much the freer the more the dynamic series with which it is connected tends to be the fundamental self... but the moments at which we thus grasp ourselves are rare, and that is why we are rarely free.

Character | Decision | Dynamic | Self | Soul | Will |

George Matthew Adams

It's what each of us sows, and how, that gives to us character and prestige. Seeds of kindness, goodwill, and human understanding, planted in fertile soil, spring up into deathless friendships, big deeds of worth, and a memory that will not soon fade out. We are all sowers of seeds - and let us never forget it!

Character | Deeds | Kindness | Memory | Understanding | Will | Worth | Deeds |

Thomas Adams

He who reforms himself, has done much toward reforming others; and one reason why the world is not reformed, is, because each would have others make a beginning, and never thinks of himself doing it.

Beginning | Character | Reason | World |

Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

Character | Good | Will |

Fred de Armond

A man who truly wants to make the world better should start by improving himself and his attitudes.

Better | Character | Man | Wants | World |

Bahya ben Asher ibn Halawa, also known as Rabbeinu Behaye

It is integrity that invests man with immortality, and bestows upon him the privilege of direct communion with God.

Character | God | Immortality | Integrity | Man | Privilege |

Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius

If thou does aught good, do it quickly. For what is done quickly will be acceptable. Favors slowly granted are unfavorably received.

Character | Good | Will |

Simeon ben Azai, sometimes Ben Azai

Despise not any man, and do not spurn anything; for there is no man that has not his hour, nor is there anything that has not its place.

Character | Despise | Man |

Arthur Aughey

A cheerful spirit is one of the most valuable gifts ever bestowed upon humanity by a kind Creator. It is the sweetest and the most fragrant flower of the Spirit, that constantly sends out its beauty and fragrance, and blesses everything within its reach. It will sustain the soul in the darkest and most dreary places of this world. It will hold in check the demons of despair, and stifle the power of discouragement and hopelessness. It is the brightest star that ever cast its radiance over the darkened soul, and one that seldom sets in the gloom of morbid fancies and foreboding imaginations.

Beauty | Character | Despair | Gloom | Humanity | Power | Soul | Spirit | Will | World | Beauty |

Honoré de Balzac

[Paraphrase] Self consciousness, while glorious for what is has done, is at the same time baneful, because it precludes man from entering the Cosmic Conscious life, which leads to the infinite - which alone can explain God.

Character | Consciousness | God | Life | Life | Man | Self | Time |