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

William Penn

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.

Character | Evil |

Theodore Parker

Temperance is corporal piety; it is the preservation of divine order in the body.

Body | Character | Order | Piety |

William Penn

God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.

Better | Character | Evil | God | Temptation | Wisdom | Temptation |

Plotinus NULL

For most or even all forms of evil serve the Universe - much as the poisonous snake has it use - though in most cases their function is unknown. Vice itself has many useful sides: it brings about much that is beautiful, in artistic creations for example, and it stirs us to thoughtful living, not allowing us to drowse in security.

Character | Evil | Example | Security | Universe | Vice |

Tai-shang Kan-Ying Pien (Treatise of the Exalted One on Response and Retribution) NULL

The recompense of good and evil follows as the shadow follows the figure.

Character | Evil | Good | Recompense |

Publius Syrus

Even when there is no law, there is conscience... An evil conscience is often quiet, but never secure.

Character | Conscience | Evil | Law | Quiet |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Do to others as you would have them do unto you, inspires all men with that other maxim of natural goodness, much less perfect indeed, but perhaps more useful: Do good to yourself with as little evil as possible to others.

Character | Evil | Good | Little | Men |

Mary Lou Retton

We are each put on this earth to make a particular contribution to humanity... Although God, the Almighty, has a plan for every one of us, He gives us choices. It is our responsibility to make the best of those choices in order to achieve our ultimate purpose.

Character | Earth | God | Humanity | Order | Plan | Purpose | Purpose | Responsibility |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to save it.

Character | Life | Life | Man | Order | Right | Risk |

Publius Syrus

What greater evil could you wish a miser, than long life?

Character | Evil | Life | Life |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Had I no other proof of the immortality of the soul than the oppression of the just and the triumph of the wicked in this world, this alone would prevent my having the least doubt of it. So shocking a discord amidst a general harmony of things would make me naturally look for a cause; I should say to myself we do not cease to exist with this life; everything reassumes its order after life.

Cause | Character | Doubt | Harmony | Immortality | Life | Life | Oppression | Order | Soul | World |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Luxury is a remedy much worse than the disease it sets up to cure; or rather it is in itself the greatness of all evils; for every State, great or small: for, in order to maintain all the servants and vagabonds it creates, it brings oppression and ruin on the citizen and the laborer; it is like those scorching winds, which, covering the trees and plants with their devouring insects, deprive useful animals of their subsistence and spread famine and death wherever they blow.

Character | Death | Disease | Greatness | Luxury | Oppression | Order |

Publius Syrus

The evil that lies concealed is always the most serious.

Character | Evil |