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

Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

During war times not only one should himself take part in it but also encourage the courageous to do so by creating awareness, zeal and enthusiasm for the war in the society.

Responsibility | Truth | Waiting | War |

Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

Indra only blesses those who perform good deeds, tread on the righteous path and perform religious sacrifices.

Earth | God | War | God |

Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.

War |

Upton Sinclair, fully Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr.

I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by your menaces. I am not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and filth and vermin and foul air, like any other man of refinement; also, I freely admit, when I see a line of a hundred policeman with drawn revolvers flung across a street to keep anyone from coming onto private property to hear my feeble voice, I am somewhat disturbed in my nerves. But I have a conscience and a religious faith, and I know that our liberties were not won without suffering, and may be lost again through our cowardice. I intend to do my duty to my country.

Defects | Defense | Force | Ideals | Language | Question | Slavery | Spirit | Study | War | Friends |

Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

The sunlights differ, but there is only one darkness.

Peace | Purpose | Purpose | Story | War |

Vannevar Bush

Only a small part of the interior of the memex is devoted to storage, the rest to mechanism. Yet if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill the repository, so he can be profligate and enter material freely.

Future | Science | War | Wisdom |

Václav Havel

Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee of external peace.

Absurd | Better | Change | Danger | Global | Nothing | Revolution | War | Weapons | Will | World | Danger |

Václav Havel

Despite all the political misery I am confronted with every day, it still is my profound conviction that the very essence of politics is not dirty; dirt is brought in only by wicked people. I admit that this is an area of human activity where the temptation to advance through unfair actions may be stronger than elsewhere, and which thus makes higher demands on human integrity. But it is not true at all that a politician cannot do without lying or intriguing. That is sheer nonsense, often spread by those who want to discourage people from taking an interest in public affairs. Of course, in politics, just as anywhere else in life, it is impossible and it would not be sensible always to say everything bluntly. Yet that does not mean one has to lie. What is needed here are tact, instinct and good taste.

Era | Television | Time | War |

Václav Havel

The hope of the world lies in the rehabilitation of the living human being, not just the body but also the soul.

Association | Civilization | Conduct | Culture | Events | Fate | Global | History | Human race | Humanity | Race | Reason | Rights | Unique | War | World | Fate | Association |

Van Wyck Brooks

The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man.

Man | War |

V. S. Pritchett, fully Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett

The attitude to foreigners is like the attitude to dogs: Dogs are neither human nor British, but so long as you keep them under control, give them their exercise, feed them, pat them, you will find their wild emotions are amusing, and their characters interesting. [Of London]

Awakening | Care | Man | Men | Prison | Public | Training | War |

Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

And when the play is over, it shall be that God will judge with justice and with grace.— aping this art divine, the human race plans for itself on earth a comedy:

Means | Opinion | Practice | War |

Vannevar Bush

Thus science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race. It might be striking to outline the instrumentalities of the future more spectacularly, rather than to stick closely to the methods and elements now known and undergoing rapid development, as has been done here. Technical difficulties of all sorts have been ignored, certainly, but also ignored are means as yet unknown which may come any day to accelerate technical progress as violently as did the advent of the thermionic tube.

Competition | War | Work | Old |

Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good.

War |

Tryon Edwards

It was a beautiful and striking reply, given by one in affliction, who, when asked how it was that he bore it so well, replied, - "It lightens the stroke, I find, to draw near to Him who handles the rod."

Death | Heaven | Hunger | Life | Life | Reason | War |

Tom Lehrer, fully Thomas Andrew Lehrer

I find enough mystery in mathematics to satisfy my spiritual needs. I think, for example, that pi is mysterious enough (don't get me started!) without having to worry about God. Or if pi isn't enough, how about fractals? or quantum mechanics?

Better | War | World | Writing |

Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

It created a global platform that allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, than anything we have ever seen in the history of the world.

Business | Choice | Death | Destroy | Pain | War | Will | World | Business |

Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

In a flat world, where value is increasingly created, and complex problems solve, by whom you connect with horizontally, having a high trust society is even more of an advantage.

Time | War | Will |

Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

The first rule of holes is when you’re in one, stop digging. When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels.

Fighting | Force | Power | Safe | System | War | Will | Work | World |

Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

The fact is, parents and schools and cultures can and do shape people. The most important influence in my life, outside of my family, was my high school journalism teacher, Hattie M. Steinberg. She pounded the fundamentals of journalism into her students -- not simply how to write a lead or accurately transcribe a quote but, more important, how to comport yourself in a professional way. She was nearing sixty at the time I had her as my teacher and high school newspaper adviser in the late 1960s. She was the polar opposite of cool, but we hung around her classroom like it was the malt shop and she was Wolfman Jack. None of us could have articulated it then, but it was because we enjoyed being harangued by her, disciplined by her, and taught by her. She was a woman of clarity and principles in an age of uncertainty. I sit up straight just thinking about her!

Global | War | Will |