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

Mohamed Iqbal or Sir Muhammad Iqbal, aka Allama Iqbal

From your past emerges the present, and from the present is born your future.

Future | Past | Present |

Ernest Shurtleff Holmes

The soul needs a physical body here… but when… the body is no longer an adequate instrument through which the soul may function, it lays the present body aside and continues to function through a more subtle one.

Body | Present | Soul |

Richard Tanner Johnson

All information funnels through a chief of staff and the commanding officer expects his staff to present him with a recommended course of action, not simply the facts and the alternatives.

Action | Present |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

He that hopes hereafter to look back with satisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the present value of single minutes.

Past | Present | Learn | Value |

Sharon R. Kaufman

People do not define themselves directly through a chronology of life experiences. Rather, they define themselves through the expression of selected life experiences... people crystallize certain experiences into themes… considered building blocks of identity. Identity in old age – the ageless self – is founded on the present significance of past experience, the current rendering of meaningful symbols and events of a life.

Age | Events | Experience | Life | Life | Old age | Past | People | Present | Self | Old |

Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze

How can the divine Oneness be seen? In beautiful forms, breathtaking wonders, awe-inspiring miracles? The Tao is not obliged to present itself in this way. If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things.

Awe | Miracles | Oneness | Present | Will |

John Keegen

The first and greatest imperative of command is to be present in person. Those who impose risk must be seen to share it… It is the spectacle of heroism, or its immediate report, that fires the blood.

Present | Risk |

Thomas Merton

The present world crisis... is a crisis of man’s spirit. It is a great religious and moral upheaval of the human race, and we do not really know half the causes of this upheaval.

Human race | Man | Present | Race | Spirit | World | Crisis |

Saint Albertus Magnus, aka "Doctor Universalis", Albert the Great, Albertus Magnus and Albert of Cologne, "the teacher of everything there is to know"

Work to simplify the heart, that being immovable and at peace from any invading vain phantasms, thou mayest always stand fast in the Lord within thee, to that degree as if thy soul had already entered the always present now of eternity.

Eternity | Heart | Lord | Peace | Present | Soul | Work |

George Sawyer Pettee

The basic function of a myth is always to govern present action towards future hopes.

Action | Future | Myth | Present | Govern |

Maria Montessori

The number of different objects in the world is infinite, while the qualities they possess are limited. These qualities are therefore like the letters of the alphabet which can make up an indefinite number of words. If we present the children with objects exhibiting each of these qualities separately [and “classified in an orderly way”], this is like giving them an alphabet for their explorations, a key to the doors of knowledge.

Children | Giving | Knowledge | Present | Qualities | Words | World |