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

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, Commonly called Alfred Lord Tennyson

More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheeps or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain, if, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friend? For so the whole round earth is every way bound by gold chains about the feet of God.

Better | Dreams | Earth | Gold | Knowing | Life | Life | Men | Prayer | Wisdom | World |

Robert James Turnbull

Doubt is the disease of this inquisitive, restless age. It is the price we pay for our advanced intelligence and civilization - the dim night of our resplendent day. But as the most beautiful light is born of darkness, so the faith that springs from conflict is often the strongest and the best.

Age | Civilization | Darkness | Day | Disease | Doubt | Faith | Intelligence | Light | Price | Wisdom |

Thomas Wolfe, fully Thomas Clayton Wolfe

In Sleep we lie all naked and alone, in Sleep we are united at the heart of night and darkness, and we are strange and beautiful asleep; for we are dying in the darkness, and we know no death.

Darkness | Death | Heart | Wisdom |

Ma Chih-yüan

A hundred years are no more than the dream of a butterfly. Looking back, how one sighs for the things of the past! Yesterday spring came; this morning the flowers wither. Let us hasten with the forfeit cup before the night is spent and the lamp goes out.

Past |

William Dement, fully William Charles Dement

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

Charles Edward Garman

Reason inspired by love of truth is the only eye with which man can see the spiritual heavens above us.

Love | Man | Reason | Truth |

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

“How many times in our comfortable lives,” I asked myself, “have we been moved to rise at half-past two of a winter night to feast and give thanks because we have so lived that we are suddenly pierced to the heart with the sheer blessedness of everyday existence?”

Blessedness | Existence | Heart | Past |

Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze

The chaff from winnowing will blind a man’s eyes so that he cannot tell the points of the compass. Mosquitoes will keep a man awake all night with their biting. And just in the same way this talk of charity and duty to one’s neighbor drives me nearly crazy. Sir! strive to keep the world to its own simplicity. And as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so let virtue establish itself. Wherefore such undue energy, as though searching for a fugitive with a big drum?

Charity | Duty | Energy | Man | Simplicity | Virtue | Virtue | Will | World |

Nahuatl Wise Men including Nezahualcoyotl NULL

One day we must go, one night we will descend into the region of mystery. Here, we only come to know ourselves; only in passing are we here on earth. In peace and pleasure let us spend our lives; come let us enjoy ourselves. Let not the angry do so; the earth is vast indeed! Would that one lived forever; would that one were not to die!

Day | Earth | Mystery | Peace | Pleasure | Will |

Guru Nanak

The holy man is the true lover by whom the Truly Beloved is found. Man is then happy night and day, and naturally absorbed in God. The holy man may laugh; the holy man may weep. Whatever he does, is in God’s service.

Day | God | Happy | Man | Service |

Moses de León, known in Hebrew as Moshe ben Shem-Tov NULL

Everything is linked with everything else down to the lowest ring on the chain, and the true essence of God is above as well as below, in the heavens and on earth, and nothing exists outside Him.

Earth | God | Nothing | God |

Abba Pimen

A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent.

Heart | Man |

Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers

Thank heavens we don’t get all the government we pay for.

Government | Government |

John Ray or Wray

The day has eyes, the night has ears.

Day |