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

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything. Life is made up of little things. True greatness consists in being great in little things.

Good | Greatness | Life | Life | Little | Will |

Katha Upanishad

The Self, the immortal Spirit, resides in the heart of all beings, who makes himself free from selfish desires and the craving of the senses. He beholds the greatness of the Spirit through the tranquility of the mind.

Greatness | Heart | Mind | Self | Spirit |

Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi

There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent.

Greatness | Simplicity | Truth |

Harry Jack Gray, born Harry Jack Grusin

No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.

Greatness | Safe |

Paul Graham

I've found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.

Greatness | People |

Alan Cohen

Quiet and unacclaimed acts are, to me, the real margin of greatness. Greatness is not in popularity, wealth, or long life, as most people believe. Real greatness is in simplicity and supportive words. It is in firm encouragement and gentle patience. It is in finding god in the midst of the turmoil of the marketplace, and remembering His goodness during hardship. No, greatness is not always found in those whom the world calls its heroes, but in the unheard of saints who unselfishly serve their families, lend a kind ear to a friend in despair, and lovingly see the Best in those who have become too accustomed to seeing themselves as mediocre.

Despair | Friend | God | Greatness | Life | Life | Patience | People | Popularity | Quiet | Simplicity | Turmoil | Wealth | Words | World | God |

Alfred North Whitehead

The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.

Greatness | Past | Understand |

Aristotle NULL

Suffering becomes beautiful when anybody bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

Cheerfulness | Greatness | Mind | Suffering |

Aristotle NULL

Suffering becomes beautiful when any one bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind.

Cheerfulness | Greatness | Mind | Suffering |

Arthur Schopenhauer

Compared with the short span of time they live, men of great intellect are like huge buildings, standing on a small plot of ground. The size of the building cannot be seen by anyone, just in front of it; nor, for an analogous reason, can the greatness of a genius be estimated while he lives. but when a century has passed, the world recognizes it and wishes him back again.

Genius | Greatness | Men | Reason | Size | Time | Wishes | World | Intellect |

Arthur Schopenhauer

Compared with the short span of time they live, men of great intellect are like huge buildings, standing on a small plot of ground. The size of the building cannot be seen by anyone, just in front of it; nor, for an analogous reason, can the greatness of a genius be estimated while he lives. But when a century has passed, the world recognizes it and wishes him back again.

Genius | Greatness | Men | Reason | Size | Time | Wishes | World | Intellect |

Blaise Pascal

When he consults himself man knows that he is great. When he contemplates the universe around him he knows that he is little and his ultimate greatness consists in his knowledge of his littleness.

Greatness | Knowledge | Little | Man | Universe |

Blaise Pascal

All the glory of greatness has no luster for people who are in search of understanding.

Glory | Greatness | People | Search | Understanding |