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 Blake

There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on.

History |

William Cowper

If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one.

Better | Ideas |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty.

Cause | Civilization | Harmony | Hate | History | Men | Peace | Pessimism | Wisdom |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

Other studies may tell us how man might behave, or how he should behave; history tells us how he has behaved for six thousand years. One who knows that record is in large measure protected in advance against the delusions and disillusionments of his time.

History |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

There is nothing in Socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.

Brutality | Fighting | History | Order | Trials |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

By and large the poor have the same impulses as the rich, with only less opportunity or skill to implement them.

History | Man | Money | Will | Wise |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

Out of every hundred new ideas ninety-nine or more will probably be inferior to the traditional responses which they propose to replace. No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for those are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history.

History | Man |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

Drunkenness was in good repute in England till "Bloody Mary" frowned upon it; it remained popular in Germany. The French drank more stably, not being quite so cold.

Belief | God | History | Nature | God |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Both gangs have been bad sports, so see if at least one can't redeem themselves by offering no alibis, but cooperate with the winner, for no matter which one it is the poor fellow is going to need it.

Borrowing | History | Man | Money | Think |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Fanatical religion driven to a certain point is almost as bad as none at all, but not quite.

Good | Ideas | Will | Work |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Money and women are the most sought after and the least known about of any two things we have.

Beauty | History | Beauty |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with.

Attention | History | Nothing | Thinking | World |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Mona Lisa is the only beauty who went through history and retained her reputation.

History | Money | Will |

Will and Ariel Durant

Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.

Good | History |

Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather

She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring.

Ideas |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

We are the first nation to starve to death in a storehouse that's overfilled with everything we want.

History | World |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

Well I wish he could have read a so-called humorist's mail. Never did I have so much approving mail on one article, and not a half dozen dissenting ones, and they were from lawyers. Every layman approved. It batted about 98 per cent.

Distinction | History | World |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

You must judge a man’s greatness by how much he will be missed.

Cost | Future | History | Land | Learning | Nature | Talking | Thought | World | Old | Think | Thought |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

There is good news from Washington today. Congress is deadlocked and can't act.

History | Reading |