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 James

Religion, in short, is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.

History | Religion | Wisdom |

Lyndon Johnson, fully Lyndon Baines Johnson, aka LBJ

Extremism is the pursuit of the Presidency is an unpardonable vice. Moderation in the affairs of the nation is the highest virtue.

Moderation | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | Moderation |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

The state is the servant of the citizen, and not his master.

Wisdom |

William James

Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.

History | Religion | Wisdom |

Lyndon Johnson, fully Lyndon Baines Johnson, aka LBJ

In this age when there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war - we must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint.

Age | Obligation | Peace | Restraint | Strength | War | Wisdom |

Firuz Kazemzadeh

The problem of our purpose is a religious problem... Our purpose is derived from faith and is imposed onto reality by our own souls. But faith and religious truth themselves are not absolute. They are relative. Thus the answers one gives to questions about the purpose of life must necessarily be relative to a time, a place, a tradition... To know and worship God means, in Baha’ullah’s words, to promote the unity of the human race and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men”... Someday there will be a global society in which humanity will realize its spiritual and moral potential... The destiny of mankind, actually, is the ultimate creation of the world civilization. It is only in the service of such a cause that I find the meaning and purpose of life.

Absolute | Cause | Civilization | Destiny | Faith | Global | God | Human race | Humanity | Life | Life | Love | Mankind | Meaning | Means | Men | Purpose | Purpose | Race | Reality | Service | Society | Spirit | Time | Tradition | Truth | Unity | Will | Wisdom | Words | World | Worship | Society | God |

William James

The world of our consciousness consists at all times of two parts, an objective and a subjective part, of which the former may be incalculably more extensive than the latter, and yet the latter can never be omitted or suppressed. The objective part is the sum total of whatsoever at any given time we may be thinking of, the subjective part is the inner ‘state’ in which the thinking comes to pass. What we think of may be enormous - the cosmic times and spaces, for example - whereas the inner state may be the most fugitive and paltry activity of the mind. Yet the cosmic objects, so far as the experience yields them, are but ideal pictures of something whose existence we do not inwardly possess but only point outwardly, while the inner state is our very experience itself; its reality and that of our experience are one.

Consciousness | Example | Existence | Experience | Mind | Reality | Thinking | Time | Wisdom | World | Think |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

A police state finds it cannot command the grain to grow.

Wisdom |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

Mankind | War | Will | Wisdom |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

Belief | Generosity | God | Life | Life | Man | Mortal | Poverty | Power | Rights | Wisdom | World |

Elizabeth Janeway, born Elizabeth Ames Hall

If every nation gets the government it deserves every generation writes the history which corresponds with its view of the world.

Government | History | Wisdom | World | Government |

Thomas Jefferson

A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

Government | Health | Little | Rebellion | Sound | Wisdom |

Hiram Warren Johnson

The first casualty when war comes is truth.

Truth | War | Wisdom |

William James

That which produces effects within another reality must be termed a reality itself, so I feel as if we had no philosophic excuse for calling the unseen or mystical world unreal.

Mystical | Reality | Wisdom | World |