Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Civilization

"The only function that one experience can perform is to lead into another experience; and the only fulfillment we can speak of is the reaching of a certain experienced end. When one experience leads to (or can lead to) the same end as another, they agree in function." - William James

"The prince of darkness may be a gentleman, as we are told he is, but whatever the God of earth and heaven is, He can surely be no gentleman. His menial services are needed in the dust of our human trials, even more than his dignity is needed in the empyrean." - William James

"So on he went, and on the way he thought of all the glorious things of yesterday, nought of the price whereat they must be bought, but ever to himself did softly say "no roaming now, my wars are passed away, no long dull days devoid of happiness, when such a love my yearning heart shall bless."" - William Morris

"The conservative may clamor against reform, but he might as well clamor against the centrifugal force. - He sighs for "the good old times." - He might as well wish the oak back into the acorn." - Edwin Hubbell Chapin

"The mere assemblage of peace loving people to interchange convincing reasons for their common faith, mere exhortation and argument to the public in favor of peace in general fall short of the mark." - Elihu Root

"The doctrine of man as creator, as I can easily show to such as can think philosophically, necessarily leads to an assumption of a greater creative force immanent in nature. . . . Human life, weak as it is, shadowlike as undoubtedly it is, fleet-footed as it is, gains strength in the thought that the All-life lives and supports the individual life, which is not wiped away as the little ripplets are in the broader stream." - Emil G. Hirsch, fully Emil Gustav Hirsch

"A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate." - Emil M. Cioran

"The appetite for torment is for some what the lure of gain is for others." - Emil M. Cioran

"There are eyes which can no longer learn anything from the sun, and souls afflicted by nights from which they will never recover." - Emil M. Cioran

"There is a place for analysis, but it is apt to be quite fatal in prayer and meditation. Do not dissect the love of God, but feel it. Do not dissect divine intelligence, but realize it. Do not wonder how God can possibly solve this problem, but just watch Him do it in His own way—and He will if you will give Him a chance. You know that God is Love. So go ahead on that, and do not get theoretical about it." - Emmet Fox

"Man talks of a battle with Nature, forgetting that if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side." - E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

"And then you hear, even if you repeat as you can, stop midway or high sea , that there is no stopping for us, but the road, still the road, and that the journey is always to start over." - Eugenio Montale

"A copy of Dante's Purgatorio excited his especial disgust. "French, eh?" he said. "I guessed as much, and pretty dirty too, I shouldn't wonder. Now just you wait while I look up these here books"—how he said it!—"in my list. Particularly against books the Home Secretary is. If we can't stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside."" - Evelyn Waugh, fully Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh

"It is possible for the rich to sin by coveting the privileges of the poor. The poor has always being the favorites of god I caught himÂ’ [the thief] with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still bring him back with a twitch upon the thread. Do you know last year, when I thought I was going to have a child, I'd decided to have it brought up a Catholic? I hadn't thought about religion before; I haven't since; but just at that time, when I was was waiting for the birth, I thought, 'That's the one thing I can give her. It doesn't seem to have done me much good, but my child shall have it.' Charm is the great English blight. It does not exist outside these damp islands. It spots and kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills art; I greatly fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you" - Evelyn Waugh, fully Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh

"If we do not accept the existence of a Supreme Being; that God is the source of moral law, what more do we have to offer than Marx?Â… Freedom is an eternal, God-given principle. There is no genuine happiness without freedom, nor is there any security or peace without freedom. After traveling in practically all of the free countries of the world and several times behind the Iron Curtain, I say that Marxism is the greatest evil in this world and the greatest threat to all we hold dear. Of all sad things in the world, the saddest is to see a people who have once known liberty and freedom and then lost it. I have seen the unquenchable yearning of the human heart for liberty on two unforgettable occasions. These experiences are indelibly etched on the memory of my soul." - Ezra Taft Benson

"The United States Constitution has been in existence longer than any written constitution in history. It has been a blessing, not only to our land, but to the world as well. Many nations have wisely adopted concepts and provisions of our Constitution, just as was prophesied." - Ezra Taft Benson

"A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness." - Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

"Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance.. poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music." - Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

"Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work." - Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

"In order to join vigorously in the moral work of the world I must believe that somehow the best I can accomplish will endure, will leave its trace on things, will aid the final consummation." - Felix Adler

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

"There is danger in delay." - Italian Proverbs