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

Che Guevara, fully Ernesto “Che” Guevara

The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.

Good | Intention | Journey | Means | Space | Theoretical | Think |

Erving Goffman

The self... is not an organic thing that has a specific location, whose fundamental fate is to be born, to mature, to die; it is a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a scene that is presented.

Experience | Stigma |

Esaias Tegnér

A glimpse of Breidablick, whose walls are light as e'en the silver on the cliff it shone; of dark blue steel its columns azure height and the big altar was one agate stone. It seemed as if the air upheld alone its dome, unless supporting spirits bore it, studded with stars Odin's spangled throne, a light inscrutable burned fiercely o'er it; in sky-blue mantles, sat the gold-crowned gods before it.

Lord |

Ethiopian Proverbs

Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank Him for not giving it wings.

Love |

Esther Perel

Trouble looms when monogamy is no longer a free expression of loyalty but a form of enforced compliance.

Sense | Wonder |

Esther Perel

Love enjoys knowing everything about you; desire needs mystery. Love likes to shrink the distance that exists between me and you, while desire is energized by it. If intimacy grows through repetition and familiarity, eroticism is numbed by repetition. It thrives on the mysterious, the novel, and the unexpected. Love is about having; desire is about wanting.

Desire | Love | Sense |

Esther Perel

Love is a vessel that contains both security and adventure, and commitment offers one of the great luxuries of life: time. Marriage is not the end of romance, it is the beginning.

Desire | Knowing | Love |

Ester and Jerry Hicks

There is no better way to earn money than to do the things that you love to do. Money can flow into your experience through endless avenues. It is not the choice of the craft that limits the money that flows - but only your attitude toward money.

People | Understanding | World |

Esther Perel

In order to be one, you must first be two.

Commitment | Love | Marriage | Relationship | Security | Story | Will | Writing |

Estonian Proverbs

Who wanders all the moors will taste all the berries.

Will |

Ethiopian Proverbs

A belt fastened while running will come undone while running.

Love | Taste |

Étienne Pivert de Senancour

Contain or repress their desires, this n ' is not the fight with obstinacy.

Love |

Eugene Peterson

The irony here is that the rise of interest in spiritual direction almost certainly comes from the proliferation of role-defined activism in our culture. We are sick and tired of being slotted into a function and then manipulated with Scripture and prayer to do what someone has decided (often with the help of some psychological testing) that we should be doing to bring glory to some religious enterprise or other. And so when people begin to show up who are interested in us just as we are - our souls - we are ready to be paid attention to in this prayerful, listening, non-manipulative, nonfunctional way. Spiritual direction.

Growth | Need | Problems | Quiet | Society | Society | Brevity | Learn |

Eugene Peterson

The pastoral vocation in America is embarrassingly banal. It is banal because it is pursued under the canons of job efficiency and career management. It is banal because it is reduced to the dimensions of a job description. It is banal because it is an idol – a call from God exchanged for an offer by the devil for work that can be measured and manipulated at the convenience of the worker. Holiness is not banal. Holiness is blazing.

Cynicism | Reason |

Eugene O'Neill, fully Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

It will be faithful realism, at least. Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people.

Love | Nothing | Warning | World |

Eugene O'Neill, fully Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

Why canÂ’t you remember your Shakespeare and forget the third-raters. YouÂ’ll find what youÂ’re trying to say in him- as youÂ’ll find everything else worth saying. 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with sleep.'' 'Fine! ThatÂ’s beautiful. But I wasnÂ’t trying to say that. We are such stuff as manure is made on, so letÂ’s drink up and forget it. ThatÂ’s more my idea.

Beauty | Earth | Life | Life | Love | Order | Beauty | Afraid |

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

Language was a long time without having any other words than the names which had been given to sensible objects, such as these, tree, fruit, water, fire, and others, which they had more frequent occasion to mention.

Distinguish | Fear | Ideas | Metaphysics | Reason |

Étienne Pivert de Senancour

I can do what I want, but the trouble is that I do not quite know what to do.

Enjoyment | Love | Man | Pain | Pleasure | Sense |