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

James Henry Leigh Hunt

Some tears belong to us because we are unfortunate; others, because we are humane; many because we are mortal. But most are caused by our being unwise. It is these last only that of necessity produce more.

Mortal | Necessity | Tears | Wisdom |

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Music moves us, and we know not why; we feel the tears but cannot trace their source. Is the language of some other state, born of its memory? For what can wake the soul's strong instinct of another world like music?

Instinct | Language | Memory | Music | Soul | Tears | Wisdom | World |

Maurice Maeterlinck, fully Count Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck

When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.

Enough | Love | Memory | Tears | Wisdom |

Jane Porter

When Alexander had subdued the world, and wept that none were left to dispute his arms, his tears were an involuntary tribute to a monarchy that he knew not - man’s empire over himself.

Dispute | Man | Tears | Wisdom | World |

Ouida, pseudonym of Maria Louise Ramé, preferred to be called Marie Louise de la Ramée NULL

Hypocrites weep, and you cannot tell their tears from those of saints; but no bad man ever laughed sweetly yet.

Man | Tears | Wisdom |

William M. Peck

The acceptance of truth that joy and sorrow, laughter and tears are not confined to any particular time, place or people, but are universally distributed, should make us more tolerant of and more interested in the lives of others.

Acceptance | Joy | Laughter | People | Sorrow | Tears | Time | Truth | Wisdom |

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Every abstract thinker tears love and time asunder.

Abstract | Love | Tears | Time | Wisdom |

Sidney Greenberg

A waste far more worthy of our tears is the enormous energy within us that never gets channeled, the love that is never expressed, the kindness that never surfaces, the compassion and tenderness that are never awakened.

Compassion | Energy | Kindness | Love | Tears | Tenderness | Waste |

James Whitcomb Riley

A good man never dies - in worthy deed and prayer and helpful hands, and honest eyes, if smiles or tears be there; who lives for you and me - live for the world he tries to help - he lives eternally. A good man never dies. Who lives bravely take his share of toil and stress and, for his weaker fellows’ sake, makes every burden less - he may, at last, seem worn - lie fallen - hands and eyes folded - yet, though we mourn and mourn, a good man never dies.

Good | Man | Mourn | Prayer | Tears | World |

Fulton Sheen, fully Archbishop Fulton John Sheen

Direct love toward God and peace comes over the soul: turn it from God, and the heart becomes a broken fountain where tears fall “from the sighful branches of mind.”

God | Heart | Love | Mind | Peace | Soul | Tears | God |

Vivekananda, fully Sri or Swami Vivekananda, born Narendra Nath Datta NULL

I do not believe in a religion that cannot wipe out the widow’s tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan’s mouth.

Religion | Tears |

Itamar Yaoz-Kest

Laughter spreads ripples on the surface; tears come from the inside.

Laughter | Tears |

Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad

When one goes to sleep, he takes along the material of this all-containing world, himself tears it apart, himself builds it up, and dreams by his own brightness, by his own light. Then this person becomes self-illuminated. There are no chariots there, no spans, no roads. But he projects from himself chariots, spans, roads… for he is a creator.

Dreams | Light | Self | Tears | World |

Charles Caleb Colton

Like the rainbow, peace rests upon the earth, but its arch is lost in heaven. Heaven bathes it in hues of light - it springs up amid tears and clouds - it is a reflection of the eternal sun - it is an assurance of calm - it is the sign of a great covenant between God and man - it is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light.

Earth | Eternal | God | Heaven | Light | Man | Peace | Reflection | Tears | God |

Daniel Bell

Wisdom is the tears of experience, the bridge of experience and imagination over time. It is the listening heart, the melancholy sigh, the distillation of despair to provide a realistic, if often despondent, view of the world.

Despair | Experience | Heart | Imagination | Listening | Melancholy | Tears | Time | Wisdom | World |

Francis Bacon

Wisdom for a man’s self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing; it is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall; it is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger who digged and made room for him; it is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour.

Man | Self | Tears | Will | Wisdom |