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

Henri Bergson, aka Henri-Louis Bergson

In that continuity of becoming which is reality itself, the present moment is constituted by the quasi-instantaneous section effected by our perception in the flowing mass; and this section is precisely that which we call the material world. Our bodies occupies its centre; it is, in this material world, that part of which we directly feel the flux; in its actual state the actuality of our present lies.

Perception | Present | Reality | Wisdom | World |

William Blake

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru' chinks of his cavern.

Man | Perception | Wisdom |

Bushman from Kalahari NULL

There is a dream dreaming of us.

Wisdom |

J. W. Connor

(Paraphrased by Lyall Watson) Our knowledge of all things is determined by our perception of them, and that perception is a construction based on local expectations.

Knowledge | Perception | Wisdom |

Donald Davidson

The first principle asserts that at least some mental events interact causally with physical events... The second principle is that where there is causality, there must be a law: events related as cause and effect fall under strict deterministic laws... The third principle is that there are no strict deterministic laws on the basis of which mental events can be predicted and explained... from the fact that there can be no strict psychophysical laws, and without our other two principles, we can infer the truth of a version of the identity theory, that is, a theory that identifies at least some mental events with physical events.

Cause | Events | Law | Principles | Truth | Wisdom |

Ann Faraday

A dream is incorrectly interpreted if the interpretation leaves the dreamer unmoved and disappointed. Dreams come to expand, not to diminish us.

Dreams | Wisdom |

Alexander Fleming, fully Sir Alexander Fleming

It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: the details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise, thought and perception of an individual.

Individual | Perception | Thought | Wisdom | Thought |

Brendan Francis Behan

The prospect of success in achieving our most cherished dream is not without its terrors. Who is more deprived and alone than the man who has achieved his dream?

Man | Success | Wisdom |

Perle Epstein, aka Perle Besserman and Perle S. Epstein

Before an egg can grow into a chicken, it must first totally cease to be an egg. Each thing must lose its original identity before it can be something else. Therefore, before a thing is transformed into something else, it must come to a level of no-thingness.

Wisdom |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As soon as any one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone.

Creed | Perception | Science | Wisdom |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an elect few.

Emotions | Property | Reason | Wisdom |

Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

The dream is the royal road to the unconscious.

Wisdom |