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

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.

Age | Pain | Youth | Youth |

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self.

Pain |

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

What causes us to like new acquaintances is not so much weariness of our old ones, or the pleasure of change, as disgust at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well, and the hope of being admired more by those who do not know so much about us.

Gratitude | Men | Pride | Value |

William Shakespeare

O place and greatness! millions of false eyes are stuck upon thee; volumes of reports run with these false and most contrarious quests upon thy doings: thousand escapes of wit make thee the father of their idle dream, and wrack thee in their fancies.

Death | Pain |

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we are.

Jealousy | Pain | Shame |

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.

Hope | Pleasure | Old |

William Shakespeare

O, pardon me, my lord! It oft falls out, to have what we would have, we speak not what we mean. I something do excuse the thing I hate.

Death | Pain |

William Shakespeare

One raised in blood and one in blood established;

Pain |

William Shakespeare

O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain: I'll be damn'd for never a king's son in Christendom. Henry IV, Act i, Scene 2

Life | Life | Nothing | Pain |

William Shakespeare

One pain is lessened by another's anguish.

Pain | Old |

William Shakespeare

Our sometime sister, now our Queen.

Laughter | Pain |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

These, characteristically different from one another and variously modified by the gunas, present to the intellect (buddhi) the whole purpose of the Self (purusha), illumining it like a lamp.

Experience | Nature | Pain | Self | Suffering |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

From dispassion (vairagya) there is absorption into Nature (prakriti); transmigration results from passionate attachment (rajas); from power there is non-obstruction, and from the reverse, the contrary.

Body | Nature | Power | Purpose | Purpose | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The eight attainments are reasoning, oral instruction, study, the prevention of pain of three sorts, acquisition of friends, and charity. The three mentioned before (obstruction, infirmity and complacency) are the curbs on attainment.

Means | Nature |

Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?

Destroy |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The function of five, in regard to sound and the rest, is simply observation. Speech, manipulation, motion, excretion and generation are the functions of five others.

Pain |

Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL

Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.

Better | Day | Disgrace | Grief | Life | Life | Loss |

Egyptian Proverbs

A pupil may show you by his own efforts how much he deserves to learn from you.

Will |

Eldridge Cleaver, fully Leroy Eldridge Cleaver

All the gods are dead except the god of war

Pain | Thought | Will | Thought |