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

Joshua Reynolds, fully Sir Joshua Reynolds

We never are satisfied with our opinions, whatever we may pretend, till they are ratified and confirmed by the suffrages of the rest of mankind. We dispute and wrangle forever; we endeavor to get men to come to us, when we do not go to them.

Dispute | Mankind | Men | Rest | Wisdom |

Antoine de Rivarol, also known as Comte de Rivarol

The methods that help a man acquire a fortune are the very ones that keep him from enjoying it.

Fortune | Man | Wisdom |

Alexander Pope

Exercise, temperance, fresh air, and needful rest are the best of all physicians.

Rest | Wisdom |

Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Even in a righteous cause force is a fearful thing; God only helps when men can help no more.

Cause | Force | God | Men | Wisdom | God |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Law being purely the declaration of the general will, it is clear that, in the exercise of the legislative power, the people cannot be represented; but in that of the executive power, which is only the force that is applied to giver the law effect, it both can and should be represented.

Force | Law | People | Power | Will | Wisdom |

Alan B. Siegel

When you remember your dreams, you remember your Self, your hidden wounds, fears, desires and joys... When you explore you dreams, you begin to make yourself whole: you take back the powerful feelings of grief, rage, and love that you've denied or avoided. When you share your dreams, you are sharing deeply personal feelings that create bonds of intimacy and help you receive the love and support needed to heal and grow at times of change.

Change | Dreams | Feelings | Grief | Love | Rage | Receive | Self | Wisdom |

Charles Simmons

Never live in hope or expectation, while your arms are folded. God helps those that help themselves. Providence smiles on those who put their shoulders to the wheel that propels to wealth and happiness.

Expectation | God | Hope | Providence | Wealth | Wisdom | God |

Richard Steele, fully Sir Richard Steele

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Body | Mind | Reading | Wisdom |

Aloysius Michael Sullivan

The golden thread in the mind of man is the light that leads towards excellence as a human objective. If perfection is a divine attribute, excellence is a human incentive and a healthy aim, even when we fall short of the target.

Excellence | Light | Man | Mind | Perfection | Wisdom | Excellence |

Richard Smolowe, fully Richard Edward Smolowe

If the body is only the vehicle by which the soul can access the experience of physical living, then there is no real physical me. The soul (or life force) is the only real me. If you and I (the souls) want to achieve the most from this earthly lifetime, the more varied the experiences we should seek. That said, it’s too easy for you and me to fall into a comfort zone and try to avoid change. To keep this from happening, the experiences change rapidly as a result of the body moving from infancy though old age. The physical changes help to enhance our learning curve, our ability to serve, and our chance to evolve.

Ability | Age | Body | Chance | Change | Comfort | Experience | Force | Infancy | Learning | Life | Life | Old age | Soul | Wisdom | Old |

Richard Smolowe, fully Richard Edward Smolowe

In order to remain self-sufficient and calm during chaos, one must have a holistic perspective--a master plan with which help you cope. Those who are flexible and have prepared themselves will find that the accelerated changes to come will provide a profound opening of consciousness to minimize the stresses and discomforts of the journey.

Consciousness | Journey | Order | Plan | Self | Will | Wisdom |

Edward Stillingfleet

Sincerity and honesty carry one through many difficulties which all the arts he can invent would never help him through.

Honesty | Sincerity | Wisdom |

Jeremy Taylor

If these little sparks of holy fire which I have thus heaped up together do not give life to your prepared and already enkindled spirit, yet they will sometimes help to entertain a thought, to actuate a passion, to employ and hallow a fancy.

Life | Life | Little | Passion | Spirit | Thought | Will | Wisdom |

Diana Vreeland, born Diana Dalziel

The only real elegance is in the mind; if you've got that, the rest really comes from it.

Elegance | Mind | Rest | Wisdom |

Tu Weiming

We are here because embedded in our human nature is the secret code for heaven’s self-realization. Heaven is certainly omnipresent, may even be omniscient, but is most likely not omnipotent. It needs our active participation to realize its own truth... Since we help heaven to realize itself through our self-discovery, and self-understanding in day-to-day living, the ultimate meaning of life is found in our ordinary, human existence.

Day | Discovery | Existence | Heaven | Human nature | Life | Life | Meaning | Nature | Self | Self-realization | Truth | Understanding | Wisdom |

Alexis de Tocqueville, fully Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegitimate, and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.

Habit | Men | Obedience | Power | Rule | Wisdom |