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

Elias L. Magoon

Under the assumption of profound esteem, the flatterer wears an outward expression of fidelity, as foreign to his heart as the smile upon the face of the dead.

Good | Policy |

Elihu Root

The point of departure of the process to which we wish to contribute is the fact that war is the natural reaction of human nature in the savage state, while peace is the result of acquired characteristics.

Mother | System | Old |

William Shakespeare

Shine comforts from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight From these that my poor company detest; And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.

Art | Beauty | Death | Enough | Evil | Father | Fortune | God | Good | Government | Heart | Rage | Shame | Tears | Vengeance | Virtue | Virtue | Government | Art | Beauty | God |

William Shakespeare

Silence often of pure innocence Persuades, when speaking fails.

William Shakespeare

So fair and foul a day I had not seen.

Heaven | Mother |

William Shakespeare

So man and man should be, but clay and clay differs in dignity, whose dust is both alike.

Enemy | Faith |

William Shakespeare

So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him!

William Shakespeare

See, your guests approach. Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, and let's be red with mirth.

Knowledge | Suspicion |

William Shakespeare

Some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone.

Mother |

William Shakespeare

Since you know you cannot see yourself so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself that of yourself which yet you know not of.

Blush | Doubt | History | Honor | Innocence | Life | Life | Mother | Past | Tyranny | Will |

Elizabeth Gilbert

I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism.

Culture | Object |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Honey, I'm Brazilian south. I can spend ten years with broken because of a woman I have not even kissed heart.

Example | Family | Mother |

Elizabeth Gilbert

My restlessness makes me a far better day-to-day traveler than he will ever be. I am infinitely curious and almost infinitely patient with mishaps, discomforts, and minor disasters. So I can go anywhere on the planet—that’s not a problem. The problem is that I just can’t live anywhere on the planet.

Family | Man | Marriage | Mother | Peace |

Elizabeth Gilbert

A few weeks ago he said to me, completely ou of nowhere, 'You good friend to me, Liss. Loyal friend.' Then he sighed, stared off into space and added mournfully, ' Not like Sharon.' Who the hell is Sharon? What did she do to him? When I tried asking him about it, he would give me no answer. Acted suddenly like he didn't know who I was even referring to. As if I were the one who'd brought up that thieving hussy Sharon in the first place.)

Family | Mother |

Elizabeth Gilbert

I had long ago learned that when you are the giant, alien visitor to a remote and foreign culture it is sort of your job to become an object of ridicule. It’s the least you can do, really, as a polite guest.

Culture | Happiness |

Elizabeth Gilbert

The day is ending. It's time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, Let go.

Culture |

Elizabeth Gilbert

This is what we are like. Collectively as a species, this is our emotional landscape. I met an old lady once, almost 100 years old, and she told me, There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge? Everything else is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief, and suffering.

Ceremony | Culture | Feelings | Joy | Need | Order | Safe | Tradition |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Yet what keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy-tale shimmer is this solid truth, a truth which has veritably built my bones over the last few years--I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue.

Better | Depression | Dreams | Important | Integrity | Marriage | Men | Mother | Relationship | Sense | Ugly | Talent |

Elizabeth Lesser

We are born with a body that experiences pain and comfort, a heart that suffers and feels joy, a mind that strives and is peaceful, a spirit that yearns for both solitude and communion with others, and a contract on earth that has a beginning and an end. Each one of us knows this, and yet, each one of us spends much of our time swimming against the current of life's reality. The spiritual path teaches us how to float on our backs, relaxed and aware, in the waters of reality. The Buddhists define spirituality as shamatha, or 'tranquil abiding.'

Art | Attention | Culture | Model | Mourning | Patience | Loss | Art |

Elizabeth Gilbert

The four virtues a person needs in order to be safe and happy in life: intelligence, friendship, strength and (I love this one) poetry.

Mother | Woman |