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

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Beautiful she is, sir! Lovely! Sometimes Luke a great tree in flower, sometimes like a white daffadowdilly, small and slender like. Hard as di'monds, soft as moonlight. Warm as sunlight, cold as frost in the stars. Proud and far-off as a snow-mountain, and as merry as any lass I ever saw with daisies in her hair in springtime.

Action | Global | Present | Property | Sense | System | Thought | Will | Thought |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

A pathetic and shadowy medley of half-remembered traditions and mutilated beliefs. ~On the Church of England

Absurd | Life | Life | Think |

Italian Proverbs

Who lives by hope will die of hunger.

Day | Energy | Tomorrow | Will |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

Any fool can be fussy and rid himself of energy all over the place, but a man has to have something in him before he can settle down to do nothing.

Principles |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

Our dourest parsons, who followed the nonconformist fashion of long extemporary prayers, always seemed to me to be bent on bullying God.

Change | Duty | Ideas | Nature | Opinion | Think |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

I have tried to show why I believe that the biologist is the most romantic figure on earth at the present day. At first sight he seems to be just a poor little scrubby underpaid man, groping blindly amid the mazes of the ultra-microscopic, engaging in bitter and lifelong quarrels over the nephridia of flatworms, waking perhaps one morning to find that someone whose name he has never heard has demolished by a few crucial experiments the work which he had hoped would render him immortal.

Childhood |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

The future will be no primrose path. It will have its own problems. Some will be the secular problems of the past, giant flowers of evil blossoming at last to their own destruction. Others will be wholly new.

Body | Cost | Effort | Time | Following |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And yet their wills did not yield, and they struggled on.

Race | Slavery | Old |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

No matter how piercing and appalling his insights, the desolation creeping over his outer world, the lurid lights and shadows of his inner world, the writer must live with hope, work in faith.

Joy | Light | Mind | Sense | Thinking | Thought | Time | Thought |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And she looked at him and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark could outmatch in battle.

Humanity | Slavery | Truth |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And long there he lay, an image of the splendor of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.

Care | Nothing | People | Question | Right | Slavery |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of And£ril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' he cried. 'I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, D£nadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!

Control | Enough | Improvement | Labor | Money | People | Reason | Responsibility | Slavery | Child | Think |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Frodo drew the Ring out of his pocket again and looked at it. It now appeared plain and smooth, without mark or device that he could see. The gold looked very fair and pure, and Frodo thought how rich and beautiful was its color, how perfect was its roundness. It was an admirable thing and altogether precious. When he took it out he had intended to fling it from him into the very hottest part of the fire. But he found now that he could not do so, not without a great struggle. He weighed the Ring in his hand, hesitating and forcing himself to remember all that Gandalf had told him; and then with an effort of will he made a movement, as if to cast it away - but he found that he had put it back in his pocket.

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

How do you move on? You move on when your heart finally understands that there is no turning back.

Gratitude | Life | Life |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

I am doubtful myself about the undertaking. Part of the attraction of the L.R. is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed. Also many of the older legends are purely 'mythological', and nearly all are grim and tragic: a long account of the disasters that destroyed the beauty of the Ancient World, from the darkening of Valinor to the Downfall of N£menor and the flight of Elendil.

Revolution |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Gandalf and Pippin came to Merry's room, and there they found Aragorn standing by the bed. 'Poor old Merry!' cried Pippin, and he ran to the bedside, for it seemed to him that his friend looked worse and a greyness in his face, as if a weight of years and sorrow lay upon him; and suddenly a fear seized Pippin that Merry would die. 'Do not be afraid,' Aragorn said, 'I came in time, and I have called him back. He is weary now, and grieved, and he has taken a hurt like the lady Eowyn, daring to smite that deadly thing. But these evils can be amended, so strong and gay a spirit is in him. His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.' Then Aragorn laid his hand on Merry's head, and passing his hand gently through the brown curls , he touched the eyelids, and called him by name. And when the fragrance of athelas stole through the room, like the scent of orchards, and of heather in the sunshine full of bees, suddenly Merry awoke, and he said: 'I am hungry. What is the time?' 'Past supper-time now,' said Pippin; 'though I daresay I could bring you something, if they will let me.' 'They will indeed, said Gandalf, . 'And anything else that this Rider of Rohan may desire, if it can be found in Minas Tirith, where his name is in honor. 'Good!' said Merry. 'Then I would like supper first, and after that a pipe.

Organic |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

For the trouble with the real folk of Faerie is that they do not always look like what they are; and they put on the pride and beauty that we would fain wear ourselves.

Authority | Wrong |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Good stories deserve a little embellishment.

Change |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

FRODO: I can't recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I'm naked in the dark. There's nothing--no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes. SAM: Then let us be rid of it, once and for all. I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry you! Come on!

Body |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

GANDALF: A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.