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

Bonos dies, Sir Toby; for, as the old hermit of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily said to a niece of King Gorboduc, 'That that is is'; so, I, being Master Parson, am Master Parson; for what is 'that' but that, and 'is' but is?

William Shakespeare

Doubly porcullis'd with my teeth and lips; and dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance is made my gaoler to attend on me. I am too old to fawn upon a nurse, too far in years to be a pupil now; what is thy sentence then but speechless death which robs my tongue from breathing native breath? Richard II, Act i, Scene III

Gall |

William Shakespeare

Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not that when the searching eye of heaven is hid behind the globe, that lights the lower world, then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen in murders and in outrage boldly here; but when from under this terrestrial ball he fires the proud tops of the eastern pines and darts his light through every guilty hole, then murders, treasons, and detested sins, the cloak of night being plucked from off their backs, stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves? Richard II, Act iii, Scene 2

Nothing | Tragedy |

William Morris

A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.

Body | Heart | Mind |

William Shakespeare

O, here will I set up my everlasting rest, and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death!

William Shakespeare

Now will I stir this gamester: I hope I shall see an end of him: for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never schooled and yet learned; full of noble device; of all sorts enchantingly beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and especially of my own people, who best know him, that I am altogether misprised: but it shall not be so long; this wrestler shall clear all: nothing remains but that I kindle the boy thither, which now I'll go about.

Heart | Little |

William Shakespeare

O, good old man, how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world, When service sweat for duty, not for meed! Thou art not for the fashion of these times, Where none will sweat but for promotion. As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.

Cause | Good | Language | Life | Life |

William Shakespeare

O, let us have him, for his silver hairs will purchase us a good opinion, and buy men's voices to commend our deeds.

Books |

William Shakespeare

PETRUCHIO: It shall be what o'clock I say it is. HORENSIO: Why, so this gallant will command the sun.

Good |

William Shakespeare

Our courteous Antony, whom ne'er the word of 'no' woman heard speak, being barbered ten times o'er, goes to the feast, and for his ordinary pays his heart for what his eyes eat only.

Man | Music | Right | Wrong |

William Shakespeare

One will of mine to make thy large Will more.

Music |

Edwin Percy Whipple

A composition which dazzles at first sight by gaudy epithets, or brilliant turns or expression, or glittering trains of imagery, may fade gradually from the mind, leaving no enduring impression; but words which flow fresh and warm from a full heart, and which are instinct with the life and breath of human feeling, pass into household memories, and partake of the immortality of the affections from which they spring.

Little | Man |

Hu Shih, or Hú Shì

On the basis of biological, sociological, and historical knowledge, we should recognize that the individual self is subject to death or decay, but the sum total of individual achievement, for better or worse, lives on in the immortality of The Larger.

Poetry | Writing | Friends |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The primary dispositions are innate; the acquired ones, like virtue and the rest, depend on the instruments. The uterine germ and the rest belong to the effect.

Action |

Elif Safak

The Iron Rule of prudence for an Istanbulite Woman: If you are as fragile as a tea glass, either find a way to never encounter burning water and hope to marry an ideal husband or get yourself laid and broken as soon as possible. Alternatively, stop being a tea-glass woman!

Light | Child |

Elias L. Magoon

Under the assumption of profound esteem, the flatterer wears an outward expression of fidelity, as foreign to his heart as the smile upon the face of the dead.

Good | Policy |

William Shakespeare

Shine comforts from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight From these that my poor company detest; And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.

Art | Beauty | Death | Enough | Evil | Father | Fortune | God | Good | Government | Heart | Rage | Shame | Tears | Vengeance | Virtue | Virtue | Government | Art | Beauty | God |

William Shakespeare

Silence often of pure innocence Persuades, when speaking fails.

William Shakespeare

So man and man should be, but clay and clay differs in dignity, whose dust is both alike.

Enemy | Faith |

William Shakespeare

So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him!