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

William Shakespeare

Such duty as the subject owes the prince, Even such a woman oweth to her husband.

Comfort | Men |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Hopes, not just smiling. Smile your face, smile your mind, and good energy will come to you and remove dirty energy.

Woman |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Kalos Kai Agathos, the singular balance of the good and the beautiful.

Energy | Memory | Truth | Writing |

Elizabeth Gilbert

My heart skipped a beat and then flat-out tripped over itself and fell on its face. Then my heart stood up, brushed itself off, took a deep breath and announced: I want a spiritual teacher.

People | Will | World | Happiness | Think |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.

Discipline | Good | Learning | Peace | Solitude | Speech | Words | World |

Elizabeth Gilbert

There’s a reason they call God a presence- because God is right here, right now.

Care | Man |

Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

But since he had the genius to be loved, why let him have the justice to be honored in his grave.

Love | Man | Woman |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave.

Eternal | Evolution | God | History | Humanity | Ideas | Individual | Longing | Means | Need | Nothing | Order | Peace | Providence | Right | Sacred | Search | Spirit | Story | Thinking | Thought | Will | Wonder | God | Think | Thought |

Elizabeth Gilbert

So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, then drop it.

God | Joy | Mortal | Soul | Strength | God |

Elizabeth Lesser

I recently heard a great writer say that an essential element in the life of a writer is to have been an outsider in childhood, to have been given the gift of not belonging.

Earth | Good | Heart | Reverence | Talking | Woman | Old |

Elizabeth Gilbert

When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For the longest time, you can convince yourself that you've just wandered off the path, that you'll find your way back to the trailhead any moment now. Then night falls again and again, and you still have no idea where you are, and it's time to admit that you have bewildered yourself so far off the path that you don't even know from which direction the sun rises anymore.

World |

Elizabeth Lesser

Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living.

Attention | Divinity | Longing | Meditation | Mysticism | Nature | Religion | Self | Spirituality | Time | Friends |

Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How many desolate creatures on the earth have learnt the simple dues of fellowship and social comfort, in a hospital.

Little | Man |

Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Love me sweet with all thou art feeling, thinking, seeing; love me in the Lightest part, love me in full Being.

Love | World |

Elizabeth Gilbert

The karmic philosophy appeals to me on a metaphorical level because even in ones lifetime it's obvious how often we must repeat our same mistakes, banging our heads against the same ole addictions and compulsions, generating the same old miserable and often catastrophic consequences, until we can finally stop and fix it. This is the supreme lesson of karma ( and also of western psychology, by the way)- take care of the problem now, or else you'll just have to suffer again later when you screw everything up the next time. And that repetition of suffering-that's hell. Moving out of that endless repetition to a new level of understanding-there's where you'll find heaven.

Balance | Darkness | Difficulty | Light | Madness | Present |

Elizabeth Gilbert

This is what we are like. Collectively as a species, this is our emotional landscape. I met an old lady once, almost 100 years old, and she told me, There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge? Everything else is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief, and suffering.

Ceremony | Culture | Feelings | Joy | Need | Order | Safe | Tradition |

Elizabeth Gilbert

This was my moment to look for the kind of healing and peace that can only come from solitude.

Awareness | Sadness | Trials | Awareness | Think |

Elizabeth Gilbert

That's just your ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what ego does. It keeps you feeling separate, keeps you with a sense of duality, tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole.

Control |

Elizabeth Gilbert

There's a joke about a very funny Italian poor man who goes to church every day to pray before the statue of a great saint, begging, Dear saint, please, please, please ... Give me the grace of winning the lottery. This lament goes on for months. Finally the exasperated statue comes to life, looks at him and says with a wearily: My son, please, please, please ... buy a ticket. '

Church | Day | Grace | Looks | Man | Old |