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

George Bancroft

Ennui is the desire of activity without the fit means of gratifying the desire.

Desire | Ennui | Means | Wisdom |

Bernard Baruch, fully Bernard Mannes Baruch

Recipe for success: Be polite, prepare yourself for whatever you are asked to do, keep yourself tidy, be cheerful, don't be envious, be honest with yourself so you will be honest with others, be helpful, interest yourself in your job, don't pity yourself, be quick to praise, be loyal to your friends, avoid prejudices, be independent, interest yourself in politics, and read the newspapers.

Pity | Politics | Praise | Success | Will | Wisdom |

R. H. Blyth, fully Reginald Horace Blyth

To teach Zen means to unteach; to see life steadily and see it whole, the answer not being divided from the question; no parrying, dodging, countering, solving, changing the words; an activity which is a physical and spiritual unity with All-Activity.

Life | Life | Means | Question | Teach | Unity | Wisdom | Words | Zen |

Christian Nestell Bovee

Active natures are rarely melancholy. Activity and sadness are incompatible.

Melancholy | Sadness | Wisdom |

Richard Cecil

A contemplative life has more the appearance of a life of piety than any other; but it is the divine plan to bring faith into activity and exercise.

Appearance | Faith | Life | Life | Piety | Plan | Wisdom |

William Ellery Channing

The best books for a man are not always those which the wise recommend, but often those which meet the peculiar wants, the natural thirst of his mind, and therefore awaken interest and rivet thought.

Books | Man | Mind | Thought | Wants | Wisdom | Wise |

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, fully Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton

There is one way of attaining what we may term, if not utter, at least mortal happiness; it is by a sincere and unrelaxing activity for the happiness of others.

Mortal | Wisdom | Happiness |

Miguel de Cervantes, fully Miguel de Cervantes Saaversa

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.

Cause | Example | Mother | Truth | Wisdom | Witness | Instruction |

Jeremy Collier

Vanity is a strong temptation to lying; it makes people magnify their merit, over-flourish their family, and tell strange stories of their interest and acquaintance.

Acquaintance | Family | Lying | Merit | People | Temptation | Wisdom | Temptation |

Charles W. Eliot

Nobody has any right to find life uninteresting or unrewarded who sees within the sphere of his own activity a wrong he can help to remedy, or within himself an evil he can hope to overcome.

Evil | Hope | Life | Life | Right | Wisdom | Wrong |

Tyron Edwards

The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.

Attention | Good | Impression | Memory | Wisdom |

Albert Einstein

Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavor. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Fate | Man | Wisdom | Fate |

Tyron Edwards

To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.

Enthusiasm | Teach | Wisdom |

Harold Willis Dodds

Be sure to find a place for intellectual and cultural interests outside your daily occupation. It is necessary that you do so if this business of living is not to turn to dust and ashes in your mouth. Moreover, do not overlook the claims of religion as the explanation of an otherwise unintelligible world. It is not the fast tempo of modern life that kills but the boredom, a lack of strong interest and failure to grow that destroy. It is the feeling that nothing is worth while that makes men ill and unhappy.

Business | Destroy | Failure | Life | Life | Men | Nothing | Occupation | Religion | Wisdom | World | Worth | Failure | Business |

J. G. Gallimore, fully Jerry G. Gallimore

Your self image is your pattern! Every thought has an activity visualized. Every activity belongs to a pattern. You identify with your pattern of thought. Your pattern leads your life.

Life | Life | Self | Thought | Wisdom | Thought |

Garrett Hardin, fully Garrett James Hardin

Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons bring ruin to all.

Freedom | Men | Society | Wisdom | Society |