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

Silvio Pellico

Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute.

Adventure | Ambition | Circumstances | Contentment | Debt | Dignity | God | Hunger | Life | Life | Mediocrity | Men | Mortal | Nobility | Poverty | Society | Soul | Wealth | World | Ambition | Society | God |

Anthony Kenny, fully Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny

Internalized experiences of selfhood are linked to autobiographical narratives, which are linked to biographies, legal testimonies, and medical case histories, which are linked to forms of therapy and theories of the subject.

Control | Defects | Humility | Inclination | Judgment | Passion | Reason | Virtue | Virtue |

Sappho NULL

[You for] the fragrant-blossomed Muses’ lovely gifts [be zealous,] girls, [and the] clear melodious lyre: [but my once tender] body old age now [has seized;] my hair’s turned [white] instead of dark; my heart’s grown heavy, my knees will not support me, that once on a time were fleet for the dance as fawns. This state I oft bemoan; but what’s to do? Not to grow old, being human, there’s no way. Tithonus once, the tale was, rose-armed Dawn, love-smitten, carried off to the world’s end, handsome and young then, yet in time grey age o’ertook him, husband of immortal wife.

Age | Darkness | Husband |

Sappho NULL

Then you my goddess with your immortal lips smiling Would ask what now afflicts me, why again I am calling and what now I with my restive heart Desired: Whom now shall I beguile To bring you to her love? Who now injures you, Sappho? For if she flees, soon shall she chase And, rejecting gifts, soon shall she give. If she does not love you, she shall do so soon Whatsoever is her will. Come to me now to end this consuming pain Bringing what my heart desires to be brought: Be yourself my ally in this fight.” ― Sappho 4 people liked it like “Some say an army of horsemen, some of footsoldiers, some of ships, is the fairest thing on the black earth, but I say it is what one loves. It's very easy to make this clear to everyone, for Helen, by far surpassing mortals in beauty, left the best of all husbands and sailed to Troy, mindful of neither her child nor her dear parents, but with one glimpse she was seduced by Aphrodite. For easily bent... and nimbly...[missing text]... has reminded me now of Anactoria who is not here; I would much prefer to see the lovely way she walks and the radiant glance of her face than the war-chariots of the Lydians or their footsoldiers in arms.” “Honestly, I wish I were dead. Weeping many tears, she left me and said, “Alas, how terribly we suffer, Sappho. I really leave you against my will.” And I answered: “Farewell, go and remember me. You know how we cared for you. If not, I would remind you ... of our wonderful times. For by my side you put on many wreaths of roses and garlands of flowers around your soft neck. And with precious and royal perfume you anointed yourself. On soft beds you satisfied your passion. And there was no dance, no holy place from which we were absent."

Parting |

Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

As the physical body does not at once bear the brunt of these irregularities, the first symptoms appear on the functional side, in the etheric body (Archaeus). If we wish to find a current term to designate certain aspects of this irregular function, we must call it Hysteria. We shall use the term Hysteria for the too great autonomy of the processes of Metabolism; and we shall learn later on that the name is not inappropriate. Specific manifestations of hysteria in its narrower sense are nothing but this irregular metabolism raised to its culmination. In essence, the hysterical process, even in its sexual symptoms, consists of metabolic irregularities, which are external processes having no rightful place in the human body. That is, they are processes which the upper sphere has been too weak to master and control.

Important | Individual | Sense | Trifles |

Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

Our communion with this inner world is not through contemplation but through books. We have passed from intuition into intellectualism.

Need | Order | Society | Will | Society |

Rudolf Driekurs

Never do for a child what he can do for himself.

Consideration | Service |

Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

We were green: we ripened and grew golden. The Sea terrified us: we learned how to drown. Squat and earthbound, we unfolded huge wings. We started sober: are love's startled drunkards. You hide me in your cloak of nothingness reflect my ghost in your glass of being I am nothing, yet appear: transparent dream where your eternity briefly trembles.

God | God |

Sadhu Sundar Singh

For the first two or three years after my conversion, I used to ask for specific things. Now I ask for God. Supposing there is a tree full of fruits -- you will have to go and buy or beg the fruits from the owner of the tree. Every day you would have to go for one or two fruits. But if you can make the tree your own property, then all the fruits will be your own. In the same way, if God is your own, then all things in Heaven and on earth will be your own, because He is your Father and is everything to you; otherwise you will have to go and ask like a beggar for certain things. When they are used up, you will have to ask again. So ask not for gifts but for the Giver of Gifts: not for life but for the Giver of Life -- then life and the things needed for life will be added unto you.

Joy | Power |

Sadhu Sundar Singh

God's patience is infinite. Men, like small kettles, boil quickly with wrath at the least wrong. Not so God. If God were as wrathful, the world would have been a heap of ruins long ago.

Day | Earth | Father | God | Heaven | Life | Life | Will | God |

Saint Bonaventure, born John of Fidanza Bonaventure

He shall sit solitary by avoiding the company of men, he shall hold his peace by meditating upon the joys of heaven, and he has risen above his state by tasting celestial delights.

Faith | Hope | Love |

Samuel Adams

When designs are form'd to raze the very foundation of a free government, whose few who are to erect their grandeur and fortunes upon the general ruin, will employ every art to sooth the devoted people into a state of indolence, inattention and security, which is forever the fore-runner of slavery.

Ambition | Blessings | Heaven | Men | Providence | Purpose | Purpose | Ambition |

Simone Weil

We have to believe in a God who is like the true God in everything except that he does not exist, since we have not reached the point where God exists.

Man | Search | Waiting | Will |

Ignatius Loyola, aka Saint Ignatius of Loyola

As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us toward our goal of loving service and union with God. But insofar as any created things hinder our progress toward our goal, we ought to let them go.

Grace | Soul |

Cyprian, aka Saint Cyprian of Carthage, fully Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus NULL

Custom, though never so ancient, without truth, is but an old error.

God | God |

Isidore of Seville, fully Saint Isidore of Seville NULL

The more we are afflicted in this world, the greater is our assurance in the next; the more sorrow in the present, the greater will our joy be in the future.

Ability | Man |

Thérèse de Lisieux, fully Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin NULL

Merit is not to be found in doing much or in giving much, but rather in receiving and in loving much. It is said that it is far sweeter to give than to receive, and this is true. But when Jesus wants for Himself the sweetness of giving, it would not be gracious to refuse. Let Him take and give whatever He wants.

Freedom | God | Knowing | Love | Peace | Praise | Soul | Trust | God | Child |

Ignatius Loyola, aka Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Among the gifts of grace which the soul receives in holy communion there is one that must be numbered among the highest. It is, that holy communion does not permit the soul to remain long in sin, nor to obstinately persevere in it.

Love | Means | World |

Alphonsus Liguori, fully Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

You may be sure that of all the moments of your life, the time you spend before the divine Sacrament will be that which will give you more strength during life and more consolation at the hour of your death and during eternity.

Desire | Honor | Present | Reward | Will |

John Climacus, fully Saint John Climacus, aka John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites

Someone told me of an extraordinarily high degree of purity. He said: A certain man, on seeing a beautiful woman, thereupon glorified the Creator; and from that one look, he was moved to the love of God and to a fountain of tears. And it was wonderful to see how what would have been a cause of destruction for one was for another the supernatural cause of a crown. If such person always feels and behaves in the same way on similar occasions, then he has risen immortal before the general resurrection.

Defeat | Force | Men | Nature | Opinion | Power | Wealth |