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

Morihei Ueshiba

True victory does not come from defeating an enemy, true victory comes from giving love and changing an enemies heart.

Giving | Love |

Muriel Spark, fully Dame Muriel Sarah Camberg Spark

Final perseverance is the doctrine that wins the eternal victory in small things as in great.

Doctrine | Eternal | Perseverance |

Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

Children of any religion who have true faith must realize that God is the only One who knows all of everything. Therefore, only God can judge whether a person has faith, certitude, and determination or not and whether a person lives with that purity that can be called Islam or not. No one else can give that judgment. Do not wave your religion like a banner and go out to capture others. Only one kind of war is permissible in the eyes of God: the war you wage within yourself to defeat the demonic forces of lust, anger, jealousy, desire for revenge, and other evil feelings and attributes that may exist within your heart. God has sent each of the prophets as witnesses to the grace of God and as supports to help us in this inner war. This is the reason for the Qur'an. It is to help the true Muslim fight this inner battle and win victory over his own base desires that God sent the Messenger with the Qur'an.

Battle | Defeat | Desire | Determination | Evil | Faith | Feelings | God | Grace | Purity | Reason | Religion | War | God |

Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

My precious children, please bear with me when I plead with you, you who are like those whom I have given birth to, born of me, to such of you, I gift this Knowledge of Truth, which is, that your belief, that Trust in the Almighty, is your Power and your Strength, your Purity and the Perfection of your Soul. These will determine the destiny of your Soul and ensure the victory of your existence, victory of Perfection and Purity, the victory of Unity, when you attain that conviction that all other lives are like your own life.

Birth | Destiny | Knowledge | Perfection | Power | Purity | Soul | Trust | Will |

Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon I

It is only a step from victory to disaster. My experience is that, in a crisis, some detail always decides the issue.

Experience |

Nachman of Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Bratslav, Nachman from Uman NULL

Human fallibility being what it is, victory and truth do not always go together. Therefore, if you have to always win, you can't always be true.

Truth |

Nancy Gibbs

Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope....Barack Hussein Obama did not win because of the color of his skin. Nor did he win in spite of it. He won because at a very dangerous moment in the life of a still young country, more people than have ever spoken before came together to try to save it. And that was a victory all its own.

History | Life | Life | People |

Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon I

The only victory over love is flight.

Love |

Nelson Mandela, fully Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

The victory of democracy in South Africa is the common achievement of all humanity.

Achievement | Democracy |

Nelson Mandela, fully Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

Better | People | Will |

Nikolai Berdyaev, fully Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev, also spelled Nichlas Berdiaev

In art there is liberation. The essential in artistic creativity is victory over the burden of necessity. In art man lives outside himself, outside his burdens, the burden of life. Every creative artistic act is a partial transfiguration of life.

Art | Creativity | Man | Art |

Oswald Spengler, fully Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler

The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.

Organization |

Bear Bryant, fully Paul William "Bear" Bryant

If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit - you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.

Dedication | Price | Pride |

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

But passive compassion alone is not enough to achieve victory in the struggle against inhumanity. A Buddhist story that illustrates the inadequacy of the mere feeling of compassion tells of a mother with paralyzed arms who helplessly watched her child being swept away along a fast-flowing river. Those who are compassionate but who do not possess the wisdom to find the means of relieving the sufferings of their fellow human beings are compared to that mother. Meaningful compassion has to be active; it must seek the means to bring comfort to those who are in need of succor. Wisdom is necessary to enable us to discover those means.

Comfort | Compassion | Enough | Means | Mother | Need | Story | Struggle | Wisdom | Child |

Ralph Nader

You can have a lot more leverage in this country in another way, and that is by determining the margin of victory between Democrats and Republicans. It's not a spoiler role, it's a leverage role.

Ramakrishna, aka Ramakrishna Paramhamsa or Sri Ramakrishna, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay NULL

A man thinks, 'I have practiced a little prayer and austerity; so I have gained a victory over others.' But victory and defeat lie with God. I have seen a prostitute dying in the Ganges and retaining consciousness1 to the end.

Defeat | Little | Man | Prayer |

Rebecca West, pen name of Mrs. Cicily Maxwell Andrews, born Fairfield, aka Dame Rebecca West

Whatever happens, never forget that people would rather be led to perdition by a man, than to victory by a woman.

People | Perdition |

Reinhold Niebuhr, fully Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr

Despotism, which we regard with abhorrence, is rather too plausible in decaying feudal, agrarian, pastoral societies. That's why we must expect to have many a defeat before we'll have an ultimate victory in this contest with Communism.

Defeat | Regard |

Richard Wagner, fully Wilhelm Richard Wagner

Attack and defense, want and war, victory and defeat, lordship and thraldom, all sealed with the seal of blood: this from henceforth is the History of Man.

History |

Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon

The peace we seek to win is not victory over any other people, but the peace that comes with healing in its wings; with compassion for those who have suffered; with understanding for those who have opposed us; with the opportunity for all the peoples of this earth to choose their own destiny.

Compassion | Earth | Opportunity | Peace | Understanding |