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

Charles Caleb Colton

The only kind office performed for us by our friends of which we never complain is our funeral; and the only thing which we most want, happens to the be the only thing we never purchase - our coffin.

Office | Friends |

Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL

The Master said... 'Have no friends not equal to yourself'....The Master said, 'The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort'... The Master said, 'It is only the wisest and the very stupidest who cannot change.'... Being true to oneself is the law of God. To try to be true to oneself is the law of man.

Change | Comfort | God | Law | Man | Virtue | Virtue | Friends |

Charlotte Brontë

If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love our friends for their sake rather than our own.

Love | Friends |

Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL

The rule of life is to be found within yourself. Ask yourself constantly, "What is the right thing to do?" Beware of ever doing that which you are likely, sooner or later, to repent of having done. It is better to live in peace than in bitterness and strife. It is better to believe in your neighbors than to fear and distrust them. The superior man does not wrangle. He is firm but not quarrelsome. He is sociable but not clannish. The superior man sets a good example to his neighbors. He is considerate of their feelings and property. Consideration for others is the basis of a good life, and a good society. Feel kindly toward everyone. Be friendly and pleasant among yourselves. Be generous and fair.

Better | Bitterness | Consideration | Distrust | Example | Fear | Feelings | Good | Life | Life | Man | Peace | Property | Right | Rule | Society |

Chinese Proverbs

Whenever you do a thing, act so that it will give your friends no occasion for regret and your foes no cause for joy.

Cause | Joy | Regret | Will | Friends |

Demetrius of Phalerum NULL

In prosperity friends do not leave you unless desired, whereas in adversity they stay away of their own accord.

Adversity | Prosperity | Friends |

Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey

You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

People | Friends |

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

To be deceived by; our enemies or betrayed by our friends is insupportable; yet by ourselves are we often content to be so treated.

Friends |

Edward Everett Hale

The making of friends who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man's success in life.

Life | Life | Man | Success | Friends |

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air; The echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink from voicing care. Rejoice, and men will seek you; Grieve, and they turn and go; They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not need your woe. Be glad, and your friends are many; Be sad, and you lose them all,— There are none to decline your nectared wine, But alone you must drink life’s gall. Feast, and your halls are crowded; Fast, and the world goes by. Succeed and give, and it helps you live, But no man can help you die. There is room in the halls of pleasure For a large and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain

Earth | Enough | Man | Men | Need | Will | World | Trouble | Friends | Old |

Elbert Green Hubbard

Never explain: your friends don’t require it, and your enemies won’t believe you anyway.

Friends |

Elbert Green Hubbard

Never explain. Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

Need | Will | Friends |

Frank Crane

Our best friends and our worst enemies are our thoughts.

Friends |

Francis Bacon

Those that want (lack) friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts.

Friends |

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Let us all resolve, first, to attain the grace of silence; second, to deem all fault-finding that does not good a sin, and to resolve, when we are ourselves happy, not to poison the atmosphere for our neighbors by calling upon them to remark every painful and disagreeable feature in their daily life, third, to practice the grace and virtue of praise.

Fault | Good | Grace | Happy | Life | Life | Practice | Praise | Silence | Sin | Virtue | Virtue |

George Santayana

One's friends are the part of the human race with which one can be human.

Human race | Race | Friends |