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

Emil Fackenheim, fully Emil Ludwig Fackenheim

A life shot through with the tragedy of death is better - more human, more heroic - than a life of meaninglessness, even though pleasurable and comfortable.

Better | Character | Death | Life | Life | Tragedy |

James Joll

The tragedy of all political action is that some problems have no solution; none of the alternatives are intellectually consistent or morally uncompromising; and whatever decision is taken will harm somebody.

Action | Character | Decision | Harm | Problems | Tragedy | Will |

Martin Luther King, Jr.

It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the glaring noisiness of the so-called bad people, but the appalling silence of the so-called good people. It may be that our generation will have to repent not only for the diabolical actions and vitriolic words of the children of darkness, but also for the crippling fears and tragic apathy of the children of light.

Apathy | Character | Children | Darkness | Good | Light | People | Silence | Tragedy | Will | Words |

Arthur Ernest Morgan

Lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have.

Character | Important | Man | Tragedy |

Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

The aim that comedy has in view is the same as that of the highest destiny of man, and this consists in liberating himself from the influence of violent passions, and taking a calm and lucid survey of all that surrounds him, and also of his own being, and of seeing everywhere occurrence rather than fate or hazard, and ultimately rather smiling at the absurdities than shedding tears and feeling anger at sight of the wickedness of man.

Anger | Character | Comedy | Destiny | Fate | Hazard | Influence | Man | Tears | Wickedness | Fate |

Albert Schweitzer

Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose... The tragedy of man is what dies inside himself while he still lives.

Character | Man | Purpose | Purpose | Tragedy |

Anthony of Sourozh, fully Archbishop Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of Sourozh NULL

People are much greater and stronger than we imagine, and when unexpected tragedy comes we see them often grow to a stature that is far beyond anything we imagined. We must remember that people are capable of greatness, of courage, but not in isolation. They need the conditions of solidly linked human unit in which everyone is prepared to bear the burden of others.

Courage | Greatness | Isolation | Need | People | Tragedy | Wisdom |

Jean de La Bruyère

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

Comedy | Life | Life | Tragedy | Wisdom |

Clarence Darrow, fully Clarence Seward Darrow

Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

Children | Doubt | Tragedy | Wisdom | Think |

Harry Emerson Fosdick

The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.

Man | Tragedy | War | Wisdom |

Benjamin Franklin

Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

Life | Life | Tragedy | Wisdom | Wise | Old |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

It is, indeed, one of the capital tragedies of youth - and youth is the time of real tragedy - that the young are thrown mainly with adults they do not quite respect.

Respect | Time | Tragedy | Wisdom | Youth | Youth |

N. Scott Momaday, fully Navarre Scott Momaday

We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves... The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.

Existence | Imagination | Tragedy | Wisdom |