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

Christopher Morley, fully Christopher Darlington Morley

The unluckiest insolvent in the world is the man whose expenditure of speech is too great for his income of ideas.

Ideas | Man | Speech | Wisdom | World |

Peter Minard

Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws form the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary. The exodus from slavery toward the possession of the Kingdom.

Absence | Noise | Order | Peace | Silence | Slavery | Wisdom |

Douglas Meador

Great music is a flame that lights the tapers of man's noblest thoughts and drives shadows from the corridors of his soul.

Man | Music | Soul | Wisdom |

William Mountford

Never, never do great thoughts come to a man while he is discontented or fretful. There must be quiet in the temple of his soul before the windows of it will open for him to see out of them into the infinite. Quiet is what heavenly powers move in. It is in silence that the stars move on, and it is in quiet that our souls are visited from on high.

Man | Quiet | Silence | Soul | Will | Wisdom |

Felix Mendelssohn, fully Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

It's not that music is too imprecise for words, but too precise.

Music | Wisdom | Words |

John Boyle O'Reilly

Be silent and safe - silence never betrays you.

Safe | Silence | Wisdom |

Max Picard

The language of the child is silence transformed into sound: the language of the adult is sound that seeks for silence.

Language | Silence | Sound | Wisdom | Child |

Philo, aka Philo of Alexandria, Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew NULL

Geometry gives us the sense of equality produced by proportion. It also heals by means of fine music all that is harsh and inharmonious or discordant in the soul, under the influence of rhythm, meter and melody.

Equality | Influence | Means | Melody | Music | Sense | Soul | Wisdom |

Max Picard

The world of silence without speech is the world before creation, the world of unfinished creation. In silenced truth is passive and slumbering, but in language it is wide-awake. Silence is fulfilled only when speech comes forth from silence and gives it meaning and honor.

Honor | Language | Meaning | Silence | Speech | Truth | Wisdom | World |

Bons (Leonidovich) Pasternak

The direct speech of feeling is allegorical and cannot be replaced by anything.

Speech | Wisdom |

William Penn

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a great virtue: it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, and prevents sin.

Body | Folly | Mind | Rest | Silence | Sin | Spirit | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom |

Margaret Percival

Night steals on; and the day takes its farewell, like the words of a departing friend, or the last tone of hallowed music in a minister’s aisles, heard when it floats along the shade of elms; in the still place of graves.

Day | Friend | Music | Wisdom | Words |

Max Picard

Suffering only becomes unbearable when, separated from the great silence in the world, it is merely a part of the noise of history, and then has to bear its burden alone.

History | Noise | Silence | Suffering | Wisdom | World |

John Rossel

Music is the heartbeat of the universe. It reaches into the outer ramparts of eternity where time and space are nonexistent; it touches the stars and is reflected in the beauty of the galaxy. It is exemplified in the mathematical precision found in the largest star and the tiniest molecule. Music is emotional. It touches the heart and creates a response within the listener without his being aware of the technique.

Beauty | Eternity | Heart | Music | Precision | Space | Time | Universe | Wisdom | Precision | Beauty |

Francis Quarles

Silence is the highest wisdom of a fool as speech is the greatest trial of a wise man. If thou wouldst be known as wise, let thy words show thee so; if thou doubt thy words, let thy silence feign thee so. It is not a greater point of wisdom to discover knowledge than to hide ignorance.

Doubt | Ignorance | Knowledge | Man | Silence | Speech | Wisdom | Wise | Words | Trial |

Dominique Ricard

It is in learning music that many youthful hearts learn to love.

Learning | Love | Music | Wisdom | Learn |

Clara Kathleen Rogers

Singing is the highest expression of music because it is the most direct expression of the emotions of the soul.

Emotions | Music | Soul | Wisdom |