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

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

But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. The choice is yours: to go or wait.' 'And it is also said,' answered Frodo: 'Go not to the Elves for counsel for they will answer both no and yes.' 'Is it indeed?' laughed Gildor. 'Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.

Better | Day | Debt | Experiment | Family | Life | Life | Need | Rest | Sense | Will | Following |

Italian Proverbs

With the first wife is matrimony, the second company, the third heresy.

Criticism | Sense |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.

Time |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

Capitalism, though it may not always give the scientific worker a living wage, will always protect him, as being one of the geese which produce golden eggs for its table.

Beginning | Loneliness | Lying | People | Time | Work |

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 |

Ivan Krastev

Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions; transparency is politics' management of mistrust.

Cult | Language | Myth | Paradise | People | Reality | Religion | Sense | Story | World |

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

A time may come soon, said he, when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defense of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised. She answered: All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honor, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death. What do you fear, lady? he asked. A cage, she said. To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.

Consequences | Evidence | Injustice | Injustice | Learning | Murder | Relationship | Sense | System | Murder | Learn | Think |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

The future will be no primrose path. It will have its own problems. Some will be the secular problems of the past, giant flowers of evil blossoming at last to their own destruction. Others will be wholly new.

Body | Cost | Effort | Time | Following |

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

Arise, arise, Riders of Th‚oden! Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter! spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

Business | People | Sense | Slavery | Business | Old |

Italian Proverbs

Women are wise impromptu, fools on reflection.

Ecstasy | Eternity | Experience | Golden Rule | Rule | Speculation | Time | World | Golden Rule |

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 |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

No matter how piercing and appalling his insights, the desolation creeping over his outer world, the lurid lights and shadows of his inner world, the writer must live with hope, work in faith.

Joy | Light | Mind | Sense | Thinking | Thought | Time | Thought |

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

And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.

Debt | Labor | People | Security | Slavery | Time | World |

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

Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!

System | Time | Value |

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

Here ends the Silmarillion. If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manw‰ and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.

Little | Time |

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

Fear nothing! Have peace until the morning! Heed no nightly noises!

Industry | Sense |