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 Lyon Phelps

This is the final test of a gentleman: His respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.

Character | Respect | Service | Respect |

Philo, aka Philo of Alexandria, Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew NULL

The goal of wisdom is laughter and play - not the kind that one sees in little children who do not yet have the faculty of reason, but the kind that is developed in those who have grown mature through both time and understanding. If someone has experienced the wisdom that can only be heard from oneself, learned from oneself, and created from oneself, he does not merely participate in laughter: he becomes laughter itself.

Character | Children | Laughter | Little | Play | Reason | Time | Understanding | Wisdom |

Antonio Porchia

No one is a light unto himself, not even the sun.

Character | Light |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Yet it may be asked how a man can be at once free and forced to conform to wills which are not his own. How can the opposing minority be both free and subject to laws to which they have not consented? I answer that the question is badly formulated. The citizen consents to all the laws, even to those that are passed against his will, and even to those which punish him when he dares to break any one of them. The constant will of all the members of the state is the general will; it is through it that they are citizens and are free.

Character | Man | Question | Will | Wills |

Mary Lou Retton

We are each put on this earth to make a particular contribution to humanity... Although God, the Almighty, has a plan for every one of us, He gives us choices. It is our responsibility to make the best of those choices in order to achieve our ultimate purpose.

Character | Earth | God | Humanity | Order | Plan | Purpose | Purpose | Responsibility |

Publius Syrus

No one knows what he can do till he tries.

Character |

Publius Syrus

Pardon one offence, and you encourage the commission of many.

Character | Pardon |

Francis Quarles

The height of all philosophy is to know thyself; and the end of this knowledge is to know God. Know thyself, that thou mayest know God; and know God, that thou mayest love him and be like him. In the one thou art initiated into wisdom; and in the other perfected in it.

Art | Character | God | Know thyself | Knowledge | Love | Philosophy | Wisdom | Art |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Temperance and labor are the two best physicians; the one sharpens the appetite - the other prevents indulgence to excess.

Appetite | Character | Excess | Indulgence | Labor |