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 Shakespeare

Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; as hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are 'clept all by the name of dogs: the valued file distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, the housekeeper, the hunter, every one according to the gift which bounteous nature hath in him closed. Macbeth, Act iii, Scene 1

Love | Service |

William Shakespeare

And all this day an unaccustomed spirit lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.

Man | Men | Time |

William Shakespeare

And, oftentimes, excusing of a fault, Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse. The Life and Death of King John (Pembroke at IV, ii)

Age | Love | Pride | Thought | Wife | Will | Thought |

William Shakespeare

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; and time, that takes survey of all the world, must have a stop.

Good | Privilege |

William Shakespeare

Black is the badge of hell, the hue of dungeons, and the school of night; and beauty's crest becomes the heavens well.

William Shakespeare

But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail. Macbeth, Act I, Scene 7

Age | Truth |

William Shakespeare

Craft against vice I must apply. Measure for Measure (Vincentio, the Duke at III, ii)

Age | Youth | Youth |

Daniel Gilbert, fully Daniel Todd Gilbert, aka Professor Happiness

The average newspaper boy in Pittsburgh knows more about the universe than did Galileo, Aristotle, Leonardo, or any of those other guys who were so smart they only needed one name.

Books | People | Service | Smile | Will |

William Shakespeare

Down on your knees, and thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love. As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 5.

William Godwin

Every man has a certain sphere of discretion, which he has a right to expect shall not be infringed by his neighbors. This right flows from the very nature of man. First, all men are fallible: no man can be justified in setting up his judgment as a standard for others. We have no infallible judge of controversies; each man in his own apprehension is right in his decisions; and we can find no satisfactory mode of adjusting their jarring pretensions. If everyone be desirous of imposing his sense upon others, it will at last come to be a controversy, not of reason, but of force. Secondly, even if we had an in fallible criterion, nothing would be gained, unless it were by all men recognized as such. If I were secured against the possibility of mistake, mischief and not good would accrue, from imposing my infallible truths upon my neighbor, and requiring his submission independently of any conviction I could produce in his understanding. Man is a being who can never be an object of just approbation, any further than he is independent. He must consult his own reason, draw his own conclusions and conscientiously conform himself to his ideas of propriety. Without this, he will be neither active, nor considerate, nor resolute, nor generous.

Appearance | Assertion | Darkness | Destroy | Lesson | Means | Neglect | Nothing | Public | Reason | Security |

William Shakespeare

Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf, and tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

Age |

Daniel Gilbert, fully Daniel Todd Gilbert, aka Professor Happiness

The fact that we often judge the pleasure of an experience by its ending can cause us to make some curious choices.

Conversation | Music | People | Price | Public | Time | Words | World |

William Shakespeare

Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear in all my miseries; but thou hast forced me (out of thy honest truth) to play the woman. Henry VIII, Act iii, Scene 3

Age | Corruption | Ends | Fear | God | Hate | Hope | Integrity | Love | Right | Silence | Sin | Zeal | God | Blessed |

Cicely Saunders, fully Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders

You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.

Regard | Obstacle |

William Godwin

It is the property of truth to diffuse itself.

Age | Industry | Mind | Object | Will | Child |

Craig Venter, fully John Craig Venter

It is my belief that the basic knowledge that we're providing to the world will have a profound impact on the human condition and the treatments for disease and our view of our place on the biological continuum.

Dalia Mogahed

Muslim women do not regard Islam as an obstacle to their progress; indeed, many may see it as a crucial component of that progress.

Appreciation | Cause | Diversity | Justice | Law | Question | Tradition | Understanding | Appreciation |

William James

O my Bergson, you are a magician, and your book is a marvel, a real wonder in the history of philosophy . . . In finishing it I found . . . such a flavor of persistent euphony, as of a rich river that never foamed or ran thin, but steadily and firmly proceeded with its banks full to the brim.

Age | Chance | Disease | Good | Habit | Hate | Life | Life | Little | Luxury | People | Thinking | Time | Will | Learn | Think |

William James

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

Age | Character | Will | World |

William Havard

O credulity, thou hast as many ears as fame has tongues, open to every sound of truth as of falsehood.

Love | Madness | Moderation | Public | Moderation |