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

Put on what weary negligence you please, you and your fellows; I'll have it come to question: if he dislike it, let him to our sister, whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, not to be over-ruled. Idle old man, that still would manage those authorities that he hath given away! Now, by my life, old fools are babes again; and must be used with cheques as flatteries,--when they are seen abused. Remember what I tell you.

Spirit |

Hakuin, fully Hakuin Akaku NULL

What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.

Spirit |

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

All people entrusted with office should attend equally to their duties. Their work may sometimes be interrupted due to illness or their being sent on missions. But whenever they are able to attend to business they should do so as if they knew what it was about and not obstruct public affairs on the grounds they are not personally familiar with them.

Joy | Mystery | Spirit |

Edwin Hubbell Chapin

There never was a man all intellect; but just in proportion as men become so they become like lofty mountains, all ice and snow the higher they rise above the warm heart of the earth.

Looks | Mockery | Spirit | World |

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

Protect the flame of your candle and it will light more.

Spirit |

Albert Einstein

Nevertheless we all feel that it is indeed very reasonable and important to ask ourselves how we should try to conduct our lives. The answer is, in my opinion: satisfaction of the desires and needs of all, as far as this can be achieved, and achievement of harmony and beauty in the human relationships. This presupposes a good deal of conscious thought and of self-education. It is undeniable that the enlightened Greeks and the old Oriental sages had achieved a higher level in this all-important field than what is alive in our schools and universities.

Admiration | Little | Morality | Spirit |

Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen

Square cattle moved in the fields like saints, with a mindless certainty. Single trees, on a rath, at the turn of the road, drew up light at their roots. Only the massed trees – spread like a rug to dull some keenness, break some contact between self and senses perilous to the routine of living – only the trees of the demesne were dark, exhaling darkness. Down among them, dusk would stream up the paths ahead, lie stagnant over the lawns, would mount in the tank of garden, heightening the walls, dulling the borders like a rain of ashes. Dusk would lie where one looked as though it were in one’s eyes, as though the fountain of darkness were in one’s own perception. Seen from above, the house in its pit of trees seemed a very reservoir of obscurity; from the doors one must come out stained with it. And the kitchen smoke, lying over the vague trees doubtfully, seemed to be the very fume of living.

Culture | Spirit |

Albert Einstein

However, it must be admitted that our actual knowledge of these laws is only imperfect and fragmentary, so that, actually, the belief in the existence of basic all-embracing laws in Nature also rests on a sort of faith. All the same this faith has been largely justified so far by the success of scientific research.

Science | Spirit | Universe |

William Shakespeare

Some sins do bear their privilege on earth, And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly.

Birth | Power | Spirit |

Elizabeth Gilbert

I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen.

Peace | Right | Spirit | Think |

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 Lesser

What will matter is the good we did, not the good we expected others to do.

Beginning | Body | Earth | Heart | Mind | Pain | Solitude | Spirit | Spirituality | Time |

Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra May NULL

I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.

History | Spirit | Strength | Old |

Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg

Man, before he is being regenerated, does not even know that any internal man exists, much less is he acquainted with its nature and quality.

Body | Lord | Spirit |

Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg

There is granted to everyone after death the opportunity of amending his life, if it is at all possible.

Earnestness | Mind | Power | Spirit | Work |

Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg

Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, consequently such is the man.

Abundance | Body | Conversation | Eternal | Experience | Life | Life | Means | Meditation | Money | Need | People | Reading | Spirit | Time | World | Think | Understand |

Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg

Withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand most secret ways.

Body | Death | Individual | Meaning | Means | Nature | People | Spirit | Thought | World | Thought |

Dorothy Parker

Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.

Dread | Dreams | Hate | Love | Peace | Soul | Spirit | Thought | World | Thought |

Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

Heart, we will forget him! You and I, to-night! You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light. When you have done, pray tell me, That I my thoughts may dim; Haste! lest while you’re lagging, I may remember him!

Music | Spirit | Time |