Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Gratitude

"Promises retain men better than services; for hope is to them a chain, and gratitude a thread." - Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn

"Promises retain men better than services; for hope is to them a chain, and gratitude a thread." - John Antoine Petit-Senn

"If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt... we must leave them with a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it. " - Lyndon Johnson, fully Lyndon Baines Johnson, aka LBJ

"Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not." - Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

"Why is love beyond all measure of other human possibilities so rich and such a sweet burden for the one who has been struck by it? Because we change ourselves into that which we love, and yet remain ourselves. Then we would like to thank the beloved, but find nothing that would do it adequately. We can only be thankful to ourselves. Love transforms gratitude into faithfulness to ourselves and into an unconditional faith in the Other. Thus love steadily expands its most intimate secret. Closeness here is existence in the greatest distance from the other- the distance that allows nothing to dissolve - but rather presents the “thou” in the transparent, but “incomprehensible” revelation of the “just there”. That the presence of the other breaks into our own life - this is what no feeling can fully encompass. Human fate gives itself to human fate, and it is the task of pure love to keep this self-surrender as vital as on the first day." - Martin Heidegger

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good." - Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson

"Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantly all the time is having to accept it." - Miguel de Cervantes, fully Miguel de Cervantes Saaversa

"The more you make yourselves humble and ask for forgiveness, the more your true exaltedness is seen. Humility is a sign of exaltedness. The preface of a spotlessly pure heart (Iman-Islam) is patience (sabur), contentment and gratitude (shakur), having trust in God (tawakkal), and praising Him for everything that happens to us, saying, “Al-hamdu lillah!” Therefore, without feeling shame, ask forgiveness whenever necessary. This will be good. Allah, the Lone One who rules and sustains (Allahu ta’ala Nayan), will protect you and me." - Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

"These things were in my mind from the first moment I entered the vocal booth. The gratitude I had for rock and roll as it pulled me through a difficult adolescence. The joy I experienced when I danced. The moral power I gleaned in taking responsibility for one's action." - Patti Smith, fully Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith

"A person however learned and qualified in his life's work in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character which makes personality fragrant." - Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure." - Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL

"That possession which we gain by the sword is not lasting; gratitude for benefits eternal." - Quintus Curtius Rufus

"Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other." - Randy Pausch, fully Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch

"Expression of Gratitude to the Lord Almighty at these occassions daily; For gift of Memory at dawn, For the gift of Energy at meal times, and for the gift of Peace at night is called Trikal Sandhya." - Pandurang Shastri Athavale, fully Pandurang Vaijnath Shastri Athavale

"I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss." - Rita Mae Brown

"eight keys or ways you can build a more intimate and mutually fulfilling heart-to-heart relationship: 1. Seek to become a really good heart-centered listener. 2. Share gratitude and heartfelt appreciation. 3. Small kindnesses reap large dividends. 4. Keep your agreements. 5. Take responsibility for your own upset. 6. Celebrate your own and each other's successes. 7. Resist the urge to complain about your partner with your friends or family. 8. Develop and maintain supportive and mutually agreed upon ground rules and guidelines. And now, here are an additional four keys we've found that work wonders: 1. Be willing to give up personal space. 2. Prize your partner. 3. Touch with love. 4. Your job is not to fix, change, manipulate, or control your partner -- your job is to love them. " - Ron and Mary Hulnick, formally H. Ronald Hulnick and

"The seven heavens cannot Thee enfold, Sustained by Thee, they do not Thee sustain. They hymn Thee since Thou madest them of old, And when they perish, Thou shalt still remain, O mighty God! The messengers of heaven Thee revere. They stand to praise Thee in Thine inmost shrine, Yet from beholding Thee they shrink in fear, For how behold the dazzling dread Divine? O Lord, my God! What voice is this that singeth without cease And spends in song to Thee its nights and days? But Thou, omnipotence beyond increase, Art high—I know—uplifted over praise, O Lord, my God! So great Thy majesty and manifold, How canst Thou lodge in tabernacle’s span? Such glory no circumference can hold, For Thou art vastly mightier than man, O Lord, my God! He at whose feet celestial creatures creep A day of liberation will proclaim, And from all corners call his scattered sheep, However sorry-looking they or lame, The Lord, my God!" - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron

"Were there no men of vision, all who are blind would be dead." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"When some inward disturbance or weakness of the heart prevents your pronouncing the words of the prayers during Divine service, then consider such disturbance and weakness as an illusion of the enemy, of the demon; throw aside the despondency, the faint-heartedness, and timidity, and speak concerning the name of the Lord without hurrying, calmly and intentionally louder; you will thus overcome your disturbance and weakness, and will obtain courage and strength. Everything is possible unto those who believe and trust. We must struggle and conquer." - Saint John of Kronstadt, fully John Il’ich Serguiev, aka Holy Father John of the Kronstadt NULL

"You will find out that Charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the kettle of soup and the full basket. But you will keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give soup and bread. This the rich can do. You are the servant of the poor, always smiling and good-humored. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting master you will see. And the uglier and the dirtier they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give to them." - Saint Vincent de Paul

"There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new[...] It is your arms, Jesus, which are the lift to carry me to heaven, And so there is no need for me to grow up. In fact, just the opposite: I must stay little and become less and less." - Thérèse de Lisieux, fully Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin NULL

"Seeing the eternal recompense so disproportionate to the trifling sacrifices of this life, I longed to love Jesus, to love Him ardently, to give him a thousand proofs of tenderness while yet I could do so..." - Thérèse de Lisieux, fully Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin NULL

"You must be careful not to deprive the poem of its wild origin. " - Stanley Kunitz, fully Stanley Jasspon Kunitz

"In our complex industrial civilization of today the peace of righteousness and justice, the only kind of peace worth having, is at least as necessary in the industrial world as it is among nations. There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships." - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

"Whatever may have been said of the satiety of pleasure and of the disgust which usually follows passion, any man who has anything of a heart and who is not wretchedly and hopelessly blasé feels his love increased by his happiness, and very often the best way to retain a lover ready to leave is to give one's self up to him without reserve." - Théophile Gautier, fully Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier, aka Le Bon Theo

"Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free." - Thich Nhất Hanh

"Even God’s providence seeming estranged." - Thomas Hood

"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail." - Thomas Jefferson

"God seeks Himself in us, and the aridity and sorrow of our heart is the sorrow of God who is not known in us, who cannot find Himself in us because we do not dare to believe or trust the incredible truth that He could live in us, and live there out of choice, out of preference." - Thomas Merton

"No matter how ruined man and his world may seem to be, and no matter how terrible man's despair may become, as long as he continues to be a man his very humanity continues to tell him that life has a meaning." - Thomas Merton

"We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest." - Thomas Merton

"I change my mind about the problem of free will every time I think about it, and therefore cannot offer any view with even moderate confidence; but my present opinion is that nothing that might be a solution has yet been described. This is not a case where there are several possible candidate solutions and we don’t know which is correct. It is a case where nothing believable has (to my knowledge) been proposed by anyone in the extensive public discussion of the subject." - Thomas Nagel

"But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then you are not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward and the spirit of a sycophant." - Thomas Paine

"Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart to modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art." - William Cowper

"We are no longer happy as soon as we wish to be happier." - Walter Savage Landor

"Mahomet now proceeded to execute the great object of his religious aspirations, the purifying of the sacred edifice from the symbols of idolatry, with which it was crowded. All the idols in and about it, to the number of three hundred and sixty, were thrown down and destroyed. Among these, the most renowned was Hobal, an idol brought from Balka, in Syria, and fabled to have the power of granting rain. It was, of course, a great object of worship among the inhabitants of the thirsty desert. There were statues of Abraham and Ishmael also, represented with divining arrows in their hands ; an outrage on their memories, said Mahomet, being symbols of a diabolical art which they had never practiced. In reverence of their memories, therefore, these statues were demolished. There were paintings, also, depicting angels in the guise of beautiful women. The angels, said Mahomet, indignantly, are no such beings. There are celestial hour is provided in paradise for the solace of true believers ; but angels are ministering spirits of the Most High, and of too pure a nature to admit of sex. The paintings were accordingly obliterated. Even a dove, curiously carved of wood, he broke with his own hands, and cast upon the ground, as savoring of idolatry." - Washington Irving

"There is probably no act, for instance, which does good to anyone without doing harm to someone else, and vice versa." - W. D. Ross, fully Sir William David Ross

"I could isolate, consciously, little. Everything seemed blurred, yellow-clouded, yielding nothing tangible. Her inept acrostics, maudlin evasions, theopathies every recollection formed ripples of mysterious meaning. Everything seemed yellow-ly blurred, illusive, lost." - Vladimir Nabokov, fully Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov

"There are no exact guidelines. There are probably no guidelines at all. The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance. Awareness of all the most dangerous kinds of vanity, both in others and in ourselves. A good mind. A modest certainty about the meaning of things. Gratitude for the gift of life and the courage to take responsibility for it. Vigilance of spirit." - Václav Havel

"There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight." - Václav Havel

"You know how impossible it is, in short, to have a free nation if it is a military nation and under military orders" - Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson

"A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"In the adversity of our best friends we often find something which does not displease us." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"What causes us to like new acquaintances is not so much weariness of our old ones, or the pleasure of change, as disgust at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well, and the hope of being admired more by those who do not know so much about us." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"When we exaggerate the tenderness of our friends towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own merit." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"Now the hungry lion roars, and the wolf behowls the moon; whilst the heavy ploughman snores, all with weary task fordone. Now the wasted brands do glow, whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, puts the wretch that lies in woe in remembrance of a shroud. Now it is the time of night, that the graves, all gaping wide, every one lets forth his sprite, in the church-way paths to glide. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act v, Scene 1" - William Shakespeare

"Through the years of my trance communications and research, two control personalities... have always been identified with my work, and they have never ceased to maintain their independent and separate selves. It is interesting to note that they have always welcomed every form of scientific investigation into the nature of their own being and the mechanisms of my supernormal functioning; but up to the present any efforts to dislodge them or to reduce them to aspects of my own consciousness have led to no change in their attitude, position, or state of being. The control personalities still maintain the roles they have always played in relation to me, since my trance work began. I have reached a point in my development where I can live in harmony with myself and at peace with those personalities, for I am now able to regard them as the finer aspects of my true self. Whatever their origin may be, I do not, at present, have at my command the means of knowing; but for the time being, I am content to accept the controls as aspects of a constructive principle upon which my entire life has been built." - Eileen Garrett