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

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.

Future | Research |

Gustave Flaubert

We think of women at every age: while still children, we fondle with a na‹ve sensuality the breasts of those grown-up girls kissing us and cuddling us in their arms; at the age of ten, we dream of love; at fifteen, love comes along; at sixty, it is still with us, and if dead men in their tombs have any thought in their heads, it is how to make their way underground to the nearby grave, lift the shroud of the dear departed women, and mingle with her in her sleep

Little | Sound | World |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

World |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Christendom may be defined briefly as that part of the world in which, if a man stands up in public and swears with any show of earnestness that he is a Christian, all his auditors will laugh.

Fate | Future | Fate |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both. One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them. All it can see in an original idea is potential change, and hence an invasion of its prerogatives. The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.

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Italian Proverbs

One who wants to keep their yard tidy does not reserve a plot for the weeds.

Change | Civilization | Future | Global | Health | Inconvenient | Land | Security | Will |

Italian Proverbs

Rain on the day you get married brings good luck.

Consciousness | Power | Understand |

Italian Proverbs

Still water breeds vermin.

Fear | Future | Hope | Think |

Italian Proverbs

No good thing is failure and no evil thing success.

World |

Italian Proverbs

The friendship of the great is fraternity with lions.

Culture | Evolution | Religion | Research | Science | Theories | World |

Italian Proverbs

Never was a mewing cat a good mouser.

Future | Passion |

Italian Proverbs

Take down a thief from the gallows and he will hang you up.

Future | Hope |

Italian Proverbs

Of the great and of the dead either speak will or say nothing.

Control | Failure | Patience | Wisdom | World | Failure |

Italian Proverbs

One should learn to sail in all winds.

Future | Will |

Italian Proverbs

The difficult thing is to get foot in the stirrup.

Books | Future | Wonder | Words |

Italian Proverbs

Much smoke, and little roast.

Life | Life | Television | World | Understand |

Italian Proverbs

One must have been controlled in the same situation one wishes to properly control others.

Change | People | World | Think |

Italian Proverbs

Take heed of enemies reconciled and of meat twice boiled.

Power | Revolution | Will | World |

Italian Proverbs

The devil will tempt Lucifer.

World |

Italian Proverbs

Smooth words make smooth ways.

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