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

Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tolle

To do whatever is required of you in any situation without it becoming a role that you identify with is an essential lesson in the art of living that each one of us is here to learn. You become most powerful in whatever you do if the action is performed for its own sake rather than as a means to protect, enhance, or conform to your role identity.

Action | Art | Lesson | Means | Art |

Bob Wells, born Robert Wells, aka Hoolihan

For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.

Action | Government | Government |

Barbara Fields Bernstein

We believe that humanity stands at the threshold of its next great leap. However, our success in making this transition depends on our willingness to develop a greater vision and a clearer sense of responsibility for one another. Understanding and articulating the nature and dynamics of consciousness is key to achieving this new vision.

Consciousness | Humanity | Nature | Responsibility | Sense | Success | Understanding | Vision |

Richard Carlson

One of the mistakes many of us make is that we feel sorry for ourselves, or for others, thinking that life should be fair, or that someday it will be. It's not and it won't. When we make this mistake we tend to spend a lot of time wallowing and/or complaining about what's wrong with life. 'It's not fair,' we complain, not realizing that, perhaps, it was never intended to be.

Life | Life | Mistake | Thinking | Time | Will | Wrong |

Joel A. Barker

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.

Action | Change | Time | Vision | World |

John Wesley

What is Christian perfection? The loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. This implies that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words, and actions are governed by pure love.

God | Heart | Love | Mind | Perfection | Soul | Strength | Temper | Words | Wrong | God |

David Bohm, fully David Joseph Bohm

If [man] thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate, but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken, and without a border then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole.

Action | Man | Mind | Will |

Richard Carlson

Compassion is something you can develop with practice. It involves two things: intention and action. Intention simply means you remember to open your heart to others; you expand what and who matters, from yourself to other people. Action is simply the "what you do about it."

Action | Compassion | Heart | Intention | Means | People | Practice |

Sun Yat-sen

To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy.

Action | Understand |

Gary Ryan Blair

Doing the right thing, for the right reasons, is the right way to live a successful life. Doing the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons, is the wrong way to go about the business of life.

Business | Life | Life | Right | Wrong | Business |

Roger Birkman

The reality of life is that your perceptions -- right or wrong -- influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place.

Influence | Life | Life | Reality | Right | Wrong |

Frank Barron

The willingness to take the risk of being wrong and perhaps subjected to ridicule, punishment, or loss is an outstanding trait of the creative person. Such action does not mean to behave on foolish impulse, but to calculate the risks and then to take a chance.

Action | Chance | Impulse | Punishment | Ridicule | Risk | Wrong | Loss |

Michael Friedlander

There are many more wrong answers than right ones, and they are easier to find.

Right | Wrong |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we are trapped in error, that we have allowed ourselves to be taken in by individuals, by objects, have dreamt up an affinity with them which immediately vanishes before our waking eye; and yet we cannot tear ourselves away, held fast by some power that seems incomprehensible to us. Sometimes, however, we become fully aware and realize that error as well as truth can move and spur us on to action. Now because action is always a decisive factor, something really good can result from an active error, because the effect of all that has been done reaches out into infinity. So although creative action is certainly always best, destroying what has been done is also not without happy consequence.

Action | Error | Good | Happy | Life | Life | Power | Truth |