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

William Shakespeare

O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes favors! There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have, and when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again. Henry VIII (Wolsey at III, ii)

Beauty | Looks | Play | Truth | Virtue | Virtue | Youth | Youth | Beauty |

William Shakespeare

O, call back yesterday, did time return, And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men! To-day, to-day, unhappy day too late, O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state; For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead, Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed, and fled.

Attention | Ends | Men | Music | Taste | Truth | Words | Youth | Youth |

William Shakespeare

Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One, two; why, then ‘tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him? The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’that, my lord, no more o’that: you mar all with this starting. Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh! Lady Macbeth, Scene I

Truth |

Edwin Percy Whipple

Any style formed in imitation of some model must be affected and straight-laced.

Dignity | Evidence | Truth |

Edwin Hubbell Chapin

The bosom can ache beneath diamond brooches; and many a blithe heart dances under coarse wool.

Action | Angels | Duty | Right | Truth |

Hakuin, fully Hakuin Akaku NULL

Underlying great doubt there is great satori, where there is thorough questioning there will be thoroughgoing experience of awakening.

Nature | Truth |

Edward Scribner Ames

In the same winter quarter, beginning in January, 1896, I taught a class for the Disciples Divinity House, in the divinity school of the university, on the theology of Alexander Campbell. This enabled me to work over again the relation of his thought to that of John Lock, which had so much interested me while I was working on my thesis the previous year. With a class of eight graduate students it was possible to have reports and discussions on various problems. Our excitement ran high, for the “discovery” of the relation between Campbell and Locke gave new meaning to Disciple history and placed it in a stream of thought that was influencing modern science and philosophy with what Locke himself called “a new way of ideas.” It was the empirical and pragmatic temper applied in religious matters. This meant not only a lessened emphasis upon traditional theology and speculative metaphysics but a refection of their assumptions and methods. Like Locke, Campbell also rejected the “inner light” and “enthusiasm” as grounds for religious assurance. Both held to the possibility of revelation, but both insisted that any alleged revelation must be brought to the test of reason.

Faith | Hope | Truth | Waiting |

Edwin Hubbell Chapin

Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars, - not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole. It is the bow that rests upon the bosom of the cloud when the storm is past. It is the light that hovers above the judgment seat.

Fear | Scepticism | Science | Truth | Universe |

Edwin Hubbell Chapin

There is no mockery like the mockery of that spirit which looks around in the world and believes that all is emptiness.

Mankind | Wisdom |

Hakuin, fully Hakuin Akaku NULL

Once a person is able to achieve true singlemindedness in his practice and smash apart the old nest... into which he has settled... Wisdom immediately appears... and the all-discerning Fivefold Eye opens wide.

Knowing | Truth |

Hakuin, fully Hakuin Akaku NULL

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

Body | Cause | Earth | Knowing | Man | Nature | Oneness | People | Truth |

Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.

Earth | Power | Rest | Truth |

Hu Shih, or Hú Shì

Practically all the prominent leaders of thought in China today are openly agnostics and even atheists.

Absolute | Sense | Truth |

Egon Friedell, born Egon Friedmann

The highest, the only reality, is ever at hand, but for the most part invisible. Genius makes it visible... All knowing that goes beyond the immediate experience of the moment is a matter of faith.

Light | Mankind | World |

Elias L. Magoon

Our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel.

Man | Mankind | Words |

Elif Safak

How to deal with the goodness of their loved ones? Could be fought against goodness?

Chastity | Earth | Giving | Good | Guilt | Impression | Responsibility | Self | Truth | Wrong |

Elif Safak

The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation. Do no harm. Practise compassion. And do not gossip behind anyone's back - not even seemingly innocent remark! The words that come out of our mouth do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time. One man's pain will hurt us all. One man's joy will make everyone smile.

Change | Truth | Understand |

Elias Canetti

Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you.

Truth |

Elif Safak

No matter who, what part of the world we live, live, until a sense of a lack of deep down we are moving. It's a basic thing we are afraid of not getting lost it in the back. Bilenimizde what is missing very little indeed.

Change | Childhood | Life | Life | Religion | Sense | Time | Truth | Understanding | Woman | World |

Elif Safak

The truth is that I have not sought to understand the world. I tried to change it.

Effort | Truth |