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

R. L. Bruckberger, fully Raymond Léopold Bruckberger

If the Day of Judgment came tomorrow, and God asked us what we had made of His revelation, of His grace and our freedom… we would be hard put to it to explain the advantages of a machine civilization whose highest efficiency is used for murder and slavery.

Civilization | Day | Efficiency | Freedom | God | Grace | Judgment | Murder | Revelation | Slavery | Tomorrow | God | Murder |

Winston Churchill, fully Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

The glory of human nature lies in our seeming capacity to exercise conscious control of our own destiny.

Capacity | Control | Destiny | Glory | Human nature | Nature |

John Cotton

Not in any prescribed form of prayer, or studied liturgie, but in such manner as the Spirit of grace and prayer teacheth all the people of God.

God | Grace | People | Prayer | Spirit |

R. W. Dixon, fully Richard Watson Dixon

THERE is a soul above the soul of each, A mightier soul, which yet to each belongs: There is a sound made of all human speech, And numerous as the concourse of all songs: And in that soul lives each, in each that soul, Though all the ages are its lifetime vast; Each soul that dies, in its most sacred whole Receiveth life that shall forever last. And thus forever with a wider span Humanity o’erarches time and death; Man can elect the universal man, And live in life that ends not with his breath: And gather glory that increase still Till Time his glass with Death’s last dust shall fill.

Ends | Glory | Life | Life | Sacred | Soul | Sound | Time |

John Dewey

The things in our civilization we most prize are not of ourselves. They exist by grace of the doings and sufferings of the continuous human community in which we are a link. Ours is the responsibility of conserving, transmitting, rectifying and expanding the heritage of values we have received, that those who come after us may receive it more solid and secure, more widely accessible and more generously shared that we have received it. Here are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class or race. Such a faith has always been implicitly the common faith of mankind.

Civilization | Faith | Grace | Mankind | Race | Receive | Responsibility |

Emmet Fox

You grow in grace and understanding by solving your daily problems as they arise, by the Practice of the Presence of God, by a tolerant attitude toward others, by plan horse sense (which is Divine Wisdom in you), by sincere and honest dealing at all times, and by cultivating a true sense of humor – which always brings us nearer to God. The great point is that life is to be met and mastered. Outer conditions and appearances are simply of no importance in themselves except as they supply material for growth.

God | Grace | Growth | Humor | Life | Life | Plan | Practice | Problems | Sense | Understanding | Wisdom |

Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, fully Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange

Grace does not destroy our liberty by its certain efficacy; rather by that very efficacy divine grace moves the free will without doing violence to it.

Destroy | Free will | Grace | Liberty | Will |

G. W. F. NULL

Why is it that only upon death, and at the funeral, we fully rejoice in the glory of each person’s life and capture the true spirit of love?

Death | Glory | Life | Life | Love | Spirit |

Francesco Guicciardini

Ambition is not a reprehdnsible quality, nor are ambitious men to be censured, if they seek glory through honorable and honest means. In fact, it is they who produce great and excellent works. Those who lack this passion are cold spirits, inclined towards laziness than activity. But ambition is pernicious and detestable when it has as its sole end power.

Ambition | Glory | Laziness | Means | Men | Passion | Power | Ambition |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative [or creation] there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too... Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.

Action | Chance | Grace | Ideas | Ignorance | Initiative | Magic | Power | Providence | Truth | Think |

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

The sage does not display himself, therefore he shines. He does not approve himself therefore he is noted. He does not praise himself, therefore he has merit. He does not glory in himself, therefore he excels.

Display | Glory | Merit | Praise |

Vincent McNabb

Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them.

Control | God | Grace | Hope | God |

Pope Pius X, aka Saint Pope Pius X and Pope of the Eucharist, born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto NULL

Sacred music, being a complementary part of the solemn liturgy, participates in the general scope of liturgy, which is the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful.

Edification | Glory | God | Music | Sacred | God |

Nezahualcoyotl NULL

Banish care. If there be bounds to pleasure, the saddest life must also have an end. Then weave your wreath of flowers, and sing your songs in praise of the all-powerful God; for the glory of this world soon fades away.

Care | Glory | God | Life | Life | Pleasure | Praise | World |

Prabhavananda, fully Swami Prabhavananda NULL

The breeze of God’s grace is blowing continually. You have to set your sail to catch that breeze.

God | Grace |

Fritz A. Rothschild

Three correlative pairs: the sublime and wonder, mystery and awe, the glory and faith.

Awe | Faith | Glory | Mystery | Wonder |