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

Pliny the Younger, full name Casus Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo NULL

It is this earth that, like a kind mother, receives us at our birth, and sustains us when born; it is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an enemy of man.

Birth | Earth | Enemy | Man | Mother | Wisdom |

Milorad Pavić

We are here because in this part of the universe time is trained to stop... Life cannot survive in time that flows, or while it flows. Life survives only when time stands still... So it could happen someplace, somehow, that eternity and time would meet at a golden intersection. At the very heart of the cross, where eternity and time would connect, time would stop to be blessed by eternity. And that, in fact, is our present. Consequently, the present is the very portion of time that has stopped. Life survives only in the present. The past, therefore, consists of moments during which time has previously stopped; the future, of moments during which time will subsequently stop. So here we are. We are here because in this part of the universe time stops and makes life possible. Perhaps we can imagine a time that is not lined up to intersect eternity, a time that would seem sterile to our way of thinking. In such a region of the universe, we would not be in a position to exist since our dominant features are those of life and death.

Death | Eternity | Future | Heart | Life | Life | Past | Position | Present | Thinking | Time | Universe | Will | Wisdom | Blessed |

Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine

None love, but they who wish to love... Love is not dumb. The heart speaks many ways.

Heart | Love | Wisdom |

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 |

Theodore Roethke

The self says, I am; the heart says, I am less; the spirit says, you are nothing.

Heart | Nothing | Self | Spirit | Wisdom |

Propertius, fully Sextus Propertius NULL

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Absence | Heart | Wisdom |

Francis Quarles

Heaven is never deaf but when man’s heart is dumb.

Heart | Heaven | Man | Wisdom |

Sa'di (or Saadi), pen name of Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, born Muslih-uddin NULL

Give nobody's heart pain so long as thou canst avoid it, for one sigh may set a whole world into flame.

Heart | Pain | Wisdom | World |

Sa'di (or Saadi), pen name of Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, born Muslih-uddin NULL

The sea does not contain all the pearls, the earth does not enclose all the treasures, and the flint-stone does not enclose all the diamonds, since the head of man encloses wisdom.

Earth | Man | Wisdom |

Samuel Rutherford

Set not your heart upon the world, since God hath not made it your portion.

God | Heart | Wisdom | World | God |