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

Edwin Way Teale

How vivid is the suffering of the few when the people are few and how the suffering of nameless millions in two world wars is blurred over by numbers.

Knowledge |

Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL

Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.

Books | Knowledge | Need | Wealth |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Above, there is abundance of sattva; in the lower order of creation, tamas predominates; in the middle, rajas dominates. Such is creation from Brahma down to a blade of grass.

Discernment | Men | Present |

Hu Shih, or Hú Shì

Another important historical factor is the fact that this already very simple religion was further simplified and purified by the early philosophers of ancient China. Our first great philosopher was a founder of naturalism; and our second great philosopher was an agnostic.

Present | Time |

Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya

Good faith is the foundation of right. In everything let there be good faith, for if the lord and the vassal keep faith with one another, what cannot be accomplished? If the lord and the vassal do not keep faith with each other, everything will end in failure.

Antiquity | Duty | Man | Men | Office | Praise | Right | Sound | Will | Wise |

Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya

The three treasures, which are Buddha, the (Buddhist) Law and the (Buddhist) Priesthood; should be given sincere reverence, for they are the final refuge of all living things. Few men are so bad that they cannot be taught their truth.

Behavior | Good | Government | Lord | People | Rank | Will | Government |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Perception, inference and testimony are recognized as the threefold proof, since all other proofs are included in these. The establishment of all that is to be proven depends, verily, on the means of demonstration.

Knowledge |

Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL

The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.

Knowledge | Man | Purpose | Purpose | Time | Wise |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Munificent Nature, endowed with attributes, accomplishes by manifold means the purpose of the attributeless and uncaring Self, with no gain for itself.

Knowledge | Method |

Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban

Now For self-culture nothing equals respect for others. To counteract firmness nothing equals compliance. Consequently it can be said that the Way of respect and acquiescence is woman's most important principle of conduct. So respect may be defined as nothing other than holding on to that which is permanent; and acquiescence nothing other than being liberal and generous. Those who are steadfast in devotion know that they should stay in their proper places; those who are liberal and generous esteem others, and honor and serve chem.

Age | Authority | Books | Boys | Children | Conduct | Education | Men | Present | Relationship | Rites | Rule | Study | Teach | Understand |

Egyptian Proverbs

Man proposes, God disposes.

Responsibility | Sense | Will | Learn |

Eileen Garrett

You will not mind if I say that where there is unhappiness in a house and there is an impression of someone [i.e. a departed spirit] coming back, it is because you make for that spirit a Garden of Memory in which it can live and revive its sufferings. Unless you are, consciously or unconsciously, in a state of mind in which this impression can vivify itself, you will not be troubled. Haven't you discovered that these things only happen to you when you are in a bad emotional state, physically or mentally disturbed? Don't you realize that you yourself vivify this memory?

Change | Consciousness | Control | Harmony | Life | Life | Means | Nature | Peace | Present | Regard | Time | Work |

Eldridge Cleaver, fully Leroy Eldridge Cleaver

Ah, what sights and sounds and pain lie beneath that mist. And we had thought that our hard climb out of that cruel valley led to some cool, green and peaceful, sunlit place---but it's all jungle here, a wild and savage wilderness that's overrun with ruins. But put on your crown, my Queen, and we will build a New City on these ruins.

Impression | Memory | Mind | Spirit | Unhappiness | Will |

Egyptian Proverbs

At the time of a test, a person rises or falls.

Effort | Heaven | Hope | Knowledge |

Egyptian Proverbs

Maat, who links universal to terrestrial, the divine with the human is incomprehensible to the cerebral intelligence.

Knowledge |

Eileen Garrett

Through the years of my trance communications and research, two control personalities... have always been identified with my work, and they have never ceased to maintain their independent and separate selves. It is interesting to note that they have always welcomed every form of scientific investigation into the nature of their own being and the mechanisms of my supernormal functioning; but up to the present any efforts to dislodge them or to reduce them to aspects of my own consciousness have led to no change in their attitude, position, or state of being. The control personalities still maintain the roles they have always played in relation to me, since my trance work began. I have reached a point in my development where I can live in harmony with myself and at peace with those personalities, for I am now able to regard them as the finer aspects of my true self. Whatever their origin may be, I do not, at present, have at my command the means of knowing; but for the time being, I am content to accept the controls as aspects of a constructive principle upon which my entire life has been built.

Gratitude | Heart | Individual | Love | Need | People | Position | Praise | Responsibility | Will | Work | Afraid | Leadership |

Eileen Garrett

Isn't there a picture that belongs in the original frame? Life [one suspects she means spiritual life] cannot die. You can explode its dynamism [the physical body] but you cannot dissipate its energy. If you suffer where life suffered, the essence that once filled the frame will take from you something to dramatize and live again.

Eternal | Experience | Knowledge | Prediction |

Elif Safak

How to deal with the goodness of their loved ones? Could be fought against goodness?

Chastity | Earth | Giving | Good | Guilt | Impression | Responsibility | Self | Truth | Wrong |

Elif Safak

How can love be worthy of its name if one selects solely the pretty things and leaves out the hardships? It is easy to enjoy the good and dislike the bad. Anybody can do that. The real challenge is to love the good and the bad together, not because you need to take the rough with the smooth but because you need to go beyond such descriptions and accept love in its entirety.

Envy | Heaven | Hell | Present | Right | Time | Afraid |

Elif Safak

When you see a hand from afar, Kimya, can you do that there is only one school. But you dive into the water, you realize that there is more than a river. The river is hidden inside various currents and they all run in harmony, yet are completely separate from one another.

Belief | Books | Destroy | Force | God | Good | Insanity | Knowledge | Life | Life | Man | Need | People | Philosophy | Religion | Taste | Time | Words | God | Understand |