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

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. and if we perceive no evident change and improvement, it would be better to leave it alone; learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it be wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use.

Better | Change | Character | Giving | Improvement | Learning | Mind |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

There is no existence that is constant, either of our being or of that of objects. And we, and our judgment, and all mortal things go on flowing and rolling unceasingly. Thus nothing certain can be established about one thing by another, both the judging and the judged being in continual change and motion.

Change | Character | Existence | Judgment | Mortal | Nothing |

Donald Marr Nelson

We must drop the idea that change comes slowly.

Change | Character |

Maurice Nicoll

No one can change himself beyond his life, hereafter, beyond his Time, but only within his life. His attainment of unity is something that must belong to his life, this life, that is himself; and if we can equate unity and ‘eternal life’, it is something that cannot life in some ‘tomorrow’ or ‘hereafter’ beyond a man’s life. Its possibilities belong to us now, to something we have to do now. It is this life that must be worked upon, be made more real, by separating the false by insight.

Attainment | Change | Character | Eternal | Insight | Life | Life | Man | Time | Tomorrow | Unity |

Oliver North, fully Lt. Colonel Oliver Laurence North

We are not here to predict the future but to change it for the good.

Change | Character | Future | Good |

Rabbi Eliezer ben Isaac Papo, aka "ha-Kosesh" or "The Saint"

By analyzing your worries, you will become aware that all worry is useless. Worries fall into two categories: worrying about the past and worrying about the future. As regards to the past, worry will not change the situation. You are compounding your suffering or loss by your present worrying. If you are worrying about something that might happen in the future, do what you can to protect yourself and prevent a loss. If there is nothing you can do, all your worrying will make no difference. So why waste your present moments worrying?

Change | Character | Future | Nothing | Past | Present | Suffering | Waste | Will | Worry | Loss |

Maurice Nicoll

We live in a narrow reality, partly conditioned by our form of perception and partly made by opinions that we have borrowed, to which our self-esteem is fastened. We fight for our opinions, not because we believe them but because they involve the ordinary feeling of oneself. Though we are continually being hurt owing to the narrowness of the reality in which we dwell, we blame life, and do not see the necessity of finding absolutely new standpoints. All ideas that have a transforming power change our sense of reality.

Blame | Change | Character | Esteem | Ideas | Life | Life | Necessity | Perception | Power | Reality | Self | Self-esteem | Sense |

Otto Rank, born Otto Rosenfeld

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

Change | Character | Reality | Will | Wisdom |

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

The confirmed prejudices of a thoughtful life, are as hard to change as the confirmed habits of an indolent life: and as some must trifle away age, because they trifled away youth, others must labor on in a maze of error, because they have wandered there too long to find their way out.

Age | Change | Character | Error | Labor | Life | Life | Youth |

Charles Simmons

Recreation is not being idle; it is easing the wearied part by change of occupation. To re-create strength, rest. To re-create mind, repose. To re-create cheerfulness, hope in God, or change the object of attention to one more elevated and worthy of thought.

Attention | Change | Character | Cheerfulness | God | Hope | Mind | Object | Occupation | Recreation | Repose | Rest | Strength | Thought |

Melvin Tolson, fully Melvin Beaunorus Tolson

Since we live in a changing universe, why do men oppose change?... If a rock is in the way, the root of a tree will change its direction. The dumbest animals try to adapt themselves to changed conditions. Even a rat will change its tactics to get a piece of cheese.

Change | Character | Men | Universe | Will |

Owen D. Young

A mind, if it be open, may change with each new day, abut the spirit and the heart are as unchanging as the tides.

Change | Character | Day | Heart | Mind | Spirit |

Andy Warhol

They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Change | Character | Time |

Arthur Mortimer Astbury

"Point of view" must mean more than the mere prejudice; it should express conclusions reached by the painful process known as thinking. And when new facts or factors are presented, free men should be as vigilant to change their viewpoints as to confirm them.

Change | Men | Prejudice | Thinking | Wisdom |