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 Paley, Archdeacon of Saragossa

If the cause and end of war be justifiable, all the means that appear necessary to the end are justifiable also.

Cause | Means | War | Wisdom |

Louis Pauwels

Genetic mutation is not, it would seem, due to chance, but directed in some way, perhaps toward a spiritual regeneration of humanity - a bridge, as it were, between a lower, and a higher level of consciousness.

Chance | Consciousness | Humanity | Wisdom |

Plotinus NULL

Beauty is rather a light that plays over the symmetry of things than that symmetry itself.

Beauty | Light | Wisdom |

Leitch Ritchie

No kingdom can go to war with empty pockets.

War | Wisdom |

Frank Scully

Since the beginning of civilization we have explained our existence in terms of what we could observe... Maybe we will discover that the only true reality is a state of mind, shaped by the information we can process and contexts in which we see it. Maybe the Supreme Being we call God can best be appreciated as the power of ultimate understanding. Maybe our destination has always been to learn and grow as we approach the light of ultimate understanding. Only the context of our ability to process information changes.

Ability | Beginning | Civilization | Existence | God | Light | Mind | Power | Reality | Understanding | Will | Wisdom | God | Learn |

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

It is the same with understanding as with eyes; to a certain size and make, just so much light is necessary, and no more. Whatever is beyond brings darkness and confusion.

Darkness | Light | Size | Understanding | Wisdom |

James T. Shotwell

No international Eighteenth Amendment will get rid of war or the instruments of war until civilization finds a way for accomplishing what war has done in the past. Simply to prohibit war is not going to get rid of it. Wars must be anticipated and the causes got rid of by a readiness to accept peaceful means of settlement.

Civilization | Means | Past | War | Will | Wisdom |

Johann Jakob Scheuchzer

Each truth sparkles with a light of its own, yet it always reflects some light upon another; a truth, while lighting another, springs from one, in order to penetrate another. The first truth is an abundant sense, from which all others are colored, and each particular truth, in its turn, resembles a great river that divides into an infinite number of rivulets.

Light | Order | Sense | Truth | Wisdom |

Madame Swetchine, fully Anne Sophie Swetchine née Sophia Petrovna Soïmonov or Soymanof

Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies. The law of contrasts is one of the laws of beauty. Under the conditions of our climate, shadow gives light its worth; sternness enhances mildness; solemnity, splendor. Varying proportions of size support and subserve one another.

Age | Beauty | Law | Light | Old age | Size | Wisdom | Worth |

Terence, full Latin name Publius Terentius Afer NULL

I am a human being; no part of humanity do I consider foreign to me.

Humanity | 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 |

Jeremy Taylor

Great knowledge, if it be without vanity, is the most severe bridle of the tongue. For so have I heard that all the noises and prating of the pool, the croaking of frogs and toads, is hushed and appeased upon the instant of bringing upon them the light of a candle or torch. Every beam of reason and ray of knowledge checks the dissolutions of the tongue.

Knowledge | Light | Reason | Wisdom |