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

Peter Sterry

Didst thou every descry a glorious eternity in a winged moment of time? Didst thou ever see a bright infinite in the narrow point of an object? Then thou knowest what spirit means - the spire-top, whither all things ascend harmoniously, where they meet and sit contented in an unfathomed Depth of Life.

Character | Eternity | Life | Life | Means | Object | Spirit | Time |

Harold W Thompson

The generous heart should scorn a pleasure which gives others pain.

Character | Heart | Pain | Pleasure |

John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury

If people would but provide for eternity with the same solicitude and real care as they do for this life, they could not fail of heaven.

Care | Character | Eternity | Heaven | Life | Life | People |

John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury

When we have practiced good action awhile, they become easy; when they are easy, we take pleasure in them; when they please us, we do them frequently; and then, by frequency of act, they grow into a habit.

Action | Character | Good | Habit | Pleasure |

Wilhelm Stekel

A pleasure not shared is only half a pleasure.

Character | Pleasure | Wisdom |

John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury

There is little pleasure in the world that is true and sincere besides the pleasure of doing our duty and doing good. I am sure no other is comparable to this.

Character | Duty | Good | Little | Pleasure | World |

Washington Allston

Reverence is an ennobling sentiment; it is felt to be degrading only by the vulgar mind, which would escape the sense of its own littleness by elevating itself into an antagonist of what is above it. He that has no pleasure in looking up is not fit so much as to look down.

Mind | Pleasure | Reverence | Sense | Sentiment | Wisdom |

Ali Hameed Almaas

We are always looking for pleasure, frantically seeking happiness in many ways, and totally missing the simplest, most fundamental pleasure, which actually is also the greatest pleasure: just being here. When we are really present, the presence itself is made out of fullness, contentment and blissful pleasure... Happiness, value, and pleasure are not he result of anything. These qualities are part of our fundamental nature.

Contentment | Nature | Pleasure | Present | Qualities | Wisdom | Happiness |

Hayyim ben Joseph Vital

Sadness is a root cause of many faults... When a person is sad, he fails to take pleasure with what he has.

Cause | Character | Pleasure | Sadness |

Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

It is with the desire for peace that wars are waged, even by those who take pleasure in exercising their warlike nature in command and battle. And hence it is obvious that peace is the end sought for by war. For every man seeks peace by waging war, but no man seeks war by making peace... Even wicked men wage war to maintain the peace of their own circle, and wish that, if possible, all men belonged to them, that all men and things might serve but one head, and might, either through love or fear, yield themselves to peace with him!

Battle | Desire | Fear | Love | Man | Men | Nature | Peace | Pleasure | War | Wisdom |

William Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, to hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.

Eternity | Heaven | Wisdom | World |

Eugene P. Bertin, fully Eugene Peter Bertin

Honest work bears a lovely face for it is the father of pleasure and the mother of good fortune. It is the keystone of prosperity and the sire of fame. And best of all, work is relief from sorrow and the handmaiden of happiness.

Fame | Father | Fortune | Good | Mother | Pleasure | Prosperity | Sorrow | Wisdom | Work |

Hugh Black

It is a paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self. As a matter of experience, we find that true happiness comes in seeking other things, in the manifold activities of life, in the healthful outgoing of all human powers.

Experience | Life | Life | Paradox | Pleasure | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Wisdom | Happiness |