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

Italian Proverbs

You might typically get something good out of an overall faulty book, especially a non-fictional one, such as sound advice or anecdotes to tell others.

Religion | Think |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

If we openly declare what is wrong with us, what is our deepest need, then perhaps the death and despair will by degrees disappear.

Choice | Equality | Suspicion | Work |

Italian Proverbs

Wise men change their minds, fools never.

Ability | Attention | Day | Good | Greed | Habit | People | Selfishness |

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

At length the Lady Galadriel released them from her eyes, and she smiled. ?Do not let your hearts be troubled,? she said. ?Tonight you shall sleep in peace.? Then they sighed and felt suddenly weary, as those who have been questioned long and deeply, though no words had been spoken openly.

Effort | Fighting | Organization | People | Public | Rights | Slavery | Child |

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

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Age | Important | Mistake | Myth | Question | Regard | Science |

Italian Proverbs

Your former enemies might cunningly take revenge on you just out of spite. Trust not a reconciled enemy more than an open foe.

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

But the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders. Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheek. A sword was in her hand, and she raised her shield against the horror of her enemy's eyes? Still she did not blench: maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible. A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly. The outstretched neck she clove asunder, and the hewn head fell like a stone. Backward she sprang as the huge shape crashed to ruin, vast wings outspread, crumpled on the earth; and with its fall the shadow passed away. A light fell about her, and her hair shone in the sunrise.

Ability | Better | People | Position | Space | World | Think | Understand |

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

I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun; and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a Shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.

Art | Heart | Language | Religion | Art |

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

Grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mold of the mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten, descending into the deeps.

Abundance | World |

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

He led the way in under the huge branches of the trees. Old beyond guessing, they seemed. Great trailing beards of lichen hung from them, blowing and swaying in the breeze. Out of the shadows, the hobbits peeped, gazing back down the slope: little furtive figures that in the dim light looked like elf-children in the deeps of time peering out of the Wild Wood in wonder at their first Dawn.

Evolution | Future | Important | Learning | Science |

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

Elves and Dragons Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you'll land in trouble too big for you.

Will |

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

Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow, by fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us! Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!

Will |

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

I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.