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

Francis Quarles

Silence is the highest wisdom of a fool as speech is the greatest trial of a wise man. If thou wouldst be known as wise, let thy words show thee so; if thou doubt thy words, let thy silence feign thee so. It is not a greater point of wisdom to discover knowledge than to hide ignorance.

Doubt | Ignorance | Knowledge | Man | Silence | Speech | Wisdom | Wise | Words | Trial |

Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.

Privacy is absolutely essential to maintaining a free society. The idea that is at the foundation of the notion of privacy is that the citizen is not the tool or the instrument of government - but the reverse... If you have no privacy, it will tend to follow that you have no political freedom, no religious freedom, no freedom of families to make their own decisions [regarding having children]. All these freedoms tend to reinforce on another.

Children | Freedom | Government | Society | Will | Wisdom | Government |

Sa'di (or Saadi), pen name of Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, born Muslih-uddin NULL

In the faculty of speech man excels the brute; but if thou utterest what is improper, the brute is thy superior.

Man | Speech | Wisdom |

Lydia Sigourney, fully Lydia Huntley Sigourney, née Lydia Howard Huntley

One of the principal ingredients in the happiness of childhood is freedom from suspicion - why may it not be combined with a more extensive intercourse with mankind? A disposition to dwell on the bright side of character is like gold to its possessor; but to imagine more evil than meets the eye, betrays affinity for it.

Character | Childhood | Evil | Freedom | Gold | Mankind | Suspicion | Wisdom | Happiness |

Sydney Smith

The real object of education is to give children resources that will endure as long as life endures; habits that time will ameliorate, not destroy; occupation that will render sickness tolerable, solitude pleasant, age venerable, life more dignified and useful, and death less terrible.

Age | Children | Death | Destroy | Education | Life | Life | Object | Occupation | Solitude | Time | Will | Wisdom |

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, Commonly called Alfred Lord Tennyson

O guard thy roving thoughts with jealous care, for speech is but the dialplate of thought; and every fool reads plainly in thy words what is the hour of thy thought.

Care | Speech | Thought | Wisdom | Words |

Arthur Warwick

The speech of the tongue is best known to men; God best understands the language of the heart.

God | Heart | Language | Men | Speech | Wisdom | God |