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

Kate Millet, Katherine Murray Millett

Beauty does not lie in the face. It lies in the harmony between man and his industry. Beauty is expression. When I paint a mother I try to render her beautiful by the mere look she gives her child.

Beauty | Harmony | Industry | Man | Mother | Wisdom | Beauty |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

A father is very miserable who has no other hold on his children's affection than the need they have of his assistance, if that can be called affection.

Children | Father | Need | Wisdom |

Francis Quarles

Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of what is true. Where lies are easily admitted, the father of lies will not easily be excluded.

Father | News | Will | Wisdom |

Anne Sexton

It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.

Father | Wisdom |

Terence, full Latin name Publius Terentius Afer NULL

This is what a father ought to be about: helping his son to form the habit of doing right on his own initiative, rather than because he's afraid of some serious consequence.

Father | Habit | Initiative | Right | Wisdom | Afraid |

Richard Whately

A mother once asked a clergyman when she should begin the education of her child which she told him was then four years old. “madam,” was the reply, “you have lose three years already. From the very first smile that gleams over the infant’s cheek, your opportunity begins.

Education | Mother | Opportunity | Smile | Wisdom | Child |

Young “Savage” Seminarians NULL

You tell us that baptism is absolutely necessary to go to heaven. If there were a man so good that he had never offended God, and if he died without baptism, would he go to hell, never having given any offense to God? If he goes to hell, then God must not love all good people, since He throws one into the fire. You teach us that God existed before the creation of heaven and earth. If He did, where did He live, since there was neither heaven nor earth? You say that the angels were created n the beginning of the world, and that those who disobeyed were cast into hell. How can that be so, since you say the angels sinned before earth’s creation, and hell is in the depths of the earth? You declare that those who go to hell do not come out of it, and yet you relate stories of the damned who have appeared in the world - how is that to be understood. Ah, how I would like to kill devils, since they do so much harm! But if they are made like men and some are even among men, do they still feel the fire of hell? Why is it that they do not repent for having offended God? If they did repent, would not God be merciful to them? If Our Lord has suffered for all sinners, why do not they receive pardon from him? You say that the virgin, mother of Jesus Christ, is not God, and that she has never offended God. You also say that her Son has redeemed all men, and atoned for all; but if she has done nothing wrong, her son could not redeem her nor atone for her.

Angels | Beginning | Earth | God | Good | Harm | Heaven | Hell | Kill | Lord | Love | Man | Men | Mother | Nothing | Offense | Pardon | People | Receive | Teach | Wisdom | World | Wrong | God |

William Allen White

Everyone expects to go further than his father went; everyone expects to be better than he was born and every generation has one big impulse in its heart - to exceed all the other generations of the past in all the things that make life worth living.

Better | Father | Heart | Impulse | Life | Life | Past | Wisdom | Worth |

Phil Batchelor

A father watched as his son struggled and strained to move a large rock. “Are you using all your strength?” “No, you’re not. You have not asked me to help.”

Father | Strength |

Carl Zimmerer

Only mushrooms can grow in the shadow of mighty trees, but shrubs need light in order to grow. If you recognize your father is a tree, you should move away and out of his shadow.

Father | Light | Need | Order | Wisdom |

Temple Bailey, born Irene Temple Bailey

The mother said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength... This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God... I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.” And the children said, “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.”

Beginning | Better | Children | Courage | Day | Fortitude | God | Journey | Mother | Strength | Will |

Henri Frédéric Amiel

The religion of a child depends on what its mother and father are, and not on what they say.

Father | Mother | Religion | Child |

Alan Stuart Blinder

Our American system of government by lobbyist guarantees us a form of taxation with representation that the founding father did not foresee: special interests get the representation while the broad public gets the taxation.

Father | Government | Public | System | Government |

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

Man’s greatest duty is to love God: that is the first commandment. The second is to love his neighbor. And it is possible for two creatures to love one another only because God exists and is their common Father – it is the divine image and likeness that is loveable in our fellow-men.

Duty | Father | God | Love | Man | Men | God |

William Wordsworth

The child is father of the man.

Father | Man | Wisdom | Child |

Leopold Zunz

True knowledge is the mother of deed.

Knowledge | Mother | Wisdom |

John Climacus, fully Saint John Climacus, aka John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites

As long as anger lives, she continues to be the fruitful mother of many unhappy children.

Anger | Children | Mother |