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

Victor Hugo

Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

Darkness | Day | Earth | Future | Human race | Ignorance | Man | Race | Will |

Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard

Truth is exceedingly close, comforting and strong. Now isn't that a delightful thought to think about. Since Truth is close and strong, why are you weak? See Truth says something to you. It says, I want you to know that when you tremble, I don't tremble. If you were to bring yourself back to where you should be internally, you would be right with Truth. It would be your comfort. You need nothing else on earth.

Abundance | Ignorance |

Victor Cousin

Ignorance is the primary source of all misery and vice.

Happy | Ignorance |

Victor Hugo

Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.

Ignorance | Intuition | Man | Nothing |

Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

One should be cautions not to speak anything that hurts others. Such kind of speech never helps but always brings destruction.

Ignorance | Knowledge |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

All other tastes are bland and insipid; through them, the body and mind are rendered insipid as well.

Consequences | Ignorance | Men | World |

Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

Only by doing good can one benefit. Those who detach themselves from 'bad' and yearn for 'good', dedicate their lives to god and to the service of scholars shall be blessed.

Ignorance | Knowledge | Man | Mind |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

A person, whose heart is pure, remains untouched by 'pain' just as an assiduous person remains aloof from sinful deeds.

Ignorance |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

There is none to question Me if I do not act; there is nothing I would lose if I do not engage in activity. Nor have I any great urge to be active. But yet, you see Me very active. The reason is, I must be doing something all the time, for your sake, as an example, as an inspiration, as a piece of training.

Force | Ignorance | Life | Life | Man | Tragedy | Wrong |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

Those, who indulge excessively in material and sensual pleasures approach death with fear and inevitably fall prey to the wrath of death.

Ends | Ignorance |

Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.

God | Ignorance | Inevitable | Life | Life | God |

Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

If we know not its love, its intellect, neither the worm within my belly seeks to know me, but his petty mischief wreaks:— thus it behooves us to be circumspect.

Ignorance | Pride |

Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.

Ignorance | Knowledge | Spirit |

Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun

The image of the Buddha on the altar is clearly not a divinity or Sage. It is a representation, an artistic image ... that points back to human who realized the highest wisdom. The Buddha cultivated his nature to an awakened state. The image symbolizes his realization of humanity's potential and aspiration for the highest goodness and compassion. When you bow, symbolically you honor your own potential for great wisdom. Furthermore, bowing is good exercise. It is not idol worship, which is superstitious and passive. Bowing to the Buddha is a practice of a principle; it is dynamic and active.

Anger | Blame | Conduct | Good | Ignorance | Mind | Praise |

Tryon Edwards

We never do evil so thoroughly and heartily as when led to it by an honest but perverted, because mistaken, conscience.

Distinction | Ignorance | Inquiry |

Turkish Proverbs

Where there are no sheep, they call goats Abdur Rahim Chelebi.(In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!)

Ignorance | Will |

Thomas R. Kelly, fully Thomas Raymond Kelly

But self-renunciation means God-possession, the being possessed by God. Out of utter humility and self-forgetfulness comes the thunder of the prophets, "Thus saith the Lord." High station and low are leveled before Him. Be not fooled by the world's power. Imposing institutions of war and imperialism and greed are wholly vulnerable for they, and we, are forever in the hands of a conquering God. These are not cheap and hasty words. The high and noble adventures of faith can in our truest moments be seen as no adventures at all, but certainties. And if we live in complete humility in God we can smile in patient assurance as we work. Will you be wise enough and humble enough to be little fools of God? For who can finally stay His power? Who can resist His persuading love? Truly says Saint Augustine, "There is something in humility which raiseth the heart upward."

Business | Competition | Desire | Discernment | God | Growth | Habit | Humility | Important | Life | Life | Little | Looks | Meekness | Money | Nothing | Obedience | Poverty | Pride | Self | Soul | Superiority | Trifles | Will | Business | God |

Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson

I have long enjoyed the friendship and companionship of Republicans, because I am by instinct a teacher and I would like to teach them something.

Receive |

Thucydides NULL

For we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice enters only where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.

Love |