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

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

For the credit of virtue it must be admitted that the greatest evils which befall mankind are caused by their crimes.

Fear | Justice | Love | Men | Suffering |

Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams

You know,' he said, sitting back, reflectively, 'it's at times like this that you kind of wonder if it's worth worrying about the fabric of space-time and the causal integrity of the multidimensional probability matrix and the potential collapse of all waveforms in the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash and all that sort of stuff that's been bugging me.

Experience | Learning |

Douglas William Jerrold

There is peace more destructive of the manhood of living man than war is destructive of his material body.

Suffering |

William Shakespeare

O Lord, that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.

Good | Learning |

Murasaki Shikibu, aka Lady Murasaki

No penance can your hard heart find save such as you long since have taught me to endure.

Art | Effort | Learning | Reward | Study | Will | Worth | Art |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

These, characteristically different from one another and variously modified by the gunas, present to the intellect (buddhi) the whole purpose of the Self (purusha), illumining it like a lamp.

Experience | Nature | Pain | Self | Suffering |

Hu Shih, or Hú Shì

And lastly, the political revolutions from 1911 to the present time have done more to bring about tremendous social changes everywhere than even the economic and industrial changes and the new schools.

Culture | Language | Learning |

Edwin Way Teale

In nature, there is less death and destruction than death and transmutation.

People | Suffering | World |

Edwin Hubbell Chapin

Pride is the master sin of the devil, and the devil is the father of lies.

Martyrs | Suffering | Tears |

Egyptian Proverbs

When a slave mounts a camel he wants to ride on both humps.

Learning |

Elihu Root

When a teacher of the future comes to point out to the youth of America how the highest rewards of intellect and devotion can be gained, he may say to them, not by subtlety and intrigue not by wire pulling and demagoguery not by the arts of popularity not by skill and shiftiness in following expediency but by being firm in devotion to the principles of manhood and the application of morals and the courage of righteousness in the public life of our country by being a man without guile and without fear, without selfishness, and with devotion to duty, devotion to his country.

Better | Character | Evil | Folly | Government | Ignorance | Indifference | Indolence | Knowledge | Law | Life | Life | Little | Mind | Nature | Responsibility | Suffering | Time | World | Wrong | Government |

Elizabeth Gilbert

He is only happy when he can maintain himself - mentally and spiritually - at the intersection between a vertical line and horizontal one, in a state of perfect balance. For this, he needs to know where he is located every moment, both in his relationship to the divine and to his family here on earth. If he loses that balance, he loses his power.

Learning | Words |

Elizabeth Gilbert

LIZ: What's it like in hell? KETUT: Same like heaven. Universe is a circle, Liss. To up, to down -- all same, at end. LIZ: Then how can you tell the difference between heaven and hell? KETUT: Because of how you go. Heaven, you go up, through seven happy places. Hell you go down, through seven sad places. This is why it better for you to go up, Liss. LIZ: You mean, you might as well spend your life going upward, through the happy places, since heaven and hell -- same destinations -- are the same thing anyway? KETUT: Same-same. Same in end, so better be happy on journey.

Learning |

Elizabeth Gilbert

I watched them, thinking that little girls who make their mothers live grow up to be such powerful women.

Addiction | Blame | Good | Irony | Looks | Love | Object | Obsession | Soul | Suffering |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Addiction is the hallmark of every infatuation-based love story. It all begins when the object of your adoration bestows upon you a heady, hallucinogenic dose of something you never even dared to admit that you wanted—an emotional speedball, perhaps, of thunderous love and roiling excitement. Soon you start craving that intense attention, with the hungry obsession of any junkie. When the drug is withheld, you promptly turn sick, crazy and depleted (not to mention resentful of the dealer who encouraged this addiction in the first place but who now refuses to pony up the good stuff anymore—despite...

Chance | Divinity | Earth | Experience | Life | Life | Pain | Purpose | Purpose | Search | Suffering |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Is it logical that anybody should be expected to be afraid of the work that they feel they were put on this earth to do?

Day | Freedom | Grace | Heart | Intention | Life | Life | Love | Nothing | Past | Relationship | Resolution | Rest | Suffering | Time | Forgive |

Elizabeth Gilbert

By unnerving definition, anything that the heart has chosen for its own mysterious reasons it can always unchoose later—again, for its own mysterious reasons.

Care | Credit | Justification | Learning | Need | Pleasure | Right |

Elizabeth Gilbert

As I got older, I discovered that nothing within me cried out for a baby. My womb did not seem to have come equipped with that famously ticking clock. Unlike so many of my friends, I did not ache with longing whenever I saw an infant. (Though I did ache with longing, it is true, whenever I saw a good used-book shop)

Contentment | Distress | Focus | Friend | Global | Search | Sorrow | Suffering | Unhappiness | World | Trouble |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.

Discipline | Good | Learning | Peace | Solitude | Speech | Words | World |