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

Jane Porter

Beauty of form affects the mind, but then it must not be the mere shell that we admire, but the thought that this shell is only the beautiful case adjusted to the shape and value of a still more beautiful pearl within. The perfection of outward loveliness is the soul shining through its crystalline covering.

Beauty | Mind | Perfection | Soul | Thought | Wisdom | Thought | Value |

V. V. Rozanov, fully Vasily Vasilievich Rozanov or Vasilii Rosanov

Look everywhere with your eyes; but with your soul never look at many things, but at one.

Soul | Wisdom |

Francis Quarles

Meditation is the life of the soul; action is the soul of meditation; honor is the reward of action; so meditate, that thou mayst do; so do, that thou mayst purchase honor; for which purchase, give God the glory.

Action | Glory | God | Honor | Life | Life | Meditation | Reward | Soul | Wisdom | God |

Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

A sublime soul can rise to all kind of greatness, but by an effort; it can tear itself from all bondage, to all that limits and constrains it, but only by strength of will. Consequently the sublime soul is only free by broken efforts.

Effort | Greatness | Soul | Strength | Will | Wisdom |

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Never did any soul do good but it came readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love with more enjoyment. Never was love or gratitude or bounty practiced but with increasing joy, which made the practicer still more in love with the fair act.

Enjoyment | Good | Gratitude | Joy | Love | Soul | Wisdom |

Lydia Sigourney, fully Lydia Huntley Sigourney, née Lydia Howard Huntley

"Keep aloof from sadness," says an Icelandic writer, "for sadness is a sickness of the soul." Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm.

Good | Life | Life | Mind | Misfortune | Object | Sadness | Smile | Soul | Wisdom |

Richard Savage

By woe the soul to daring action steals; by woe in plaintless patience it excels.

Action | Daring | Patience | Soul | Wisdom | Woe |

Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar

Since every soul is looking for happiness and since happiness is really nowhere except in Divine Essence, every soul has to realize ultimately that it has been distracted. Then every soul has to retrace its steps so it can reach that Source of happiness which is both divine and universal.

Soul | Wisdom | Happiness |

Epes Sargent

The human soul is like a bird that is born in a cage. Nothing can deprive it of its natural longings or obliterate the mysterious remembrance of its heritage.

Nothing | Soul | Wisdom |

Richard and Greta Smolowe

We believe in a life continuum, and eternal life. Each incarnation or lifetime on earth is 'just a day in the classroom'... We believe the plane of greatest learning is the physical plane. It is up to all of us to make the most of each carnation. We believe that all there is in the universe is energy... and all energy forms, from subatomic particles to stars, are in a constant state of change and transformation... that interpreting energy frequencies on sensory bands creates the reality in which each life-form lives.

Change | Day | Earth | Energy | Eternal | Learning | Life | Life | Reality | Universe | Wisdom |

Richard Smolowe, fully Richard Edward Smolowe

If the body is only the vehicle by which the soul can access the experience of physical living, then there is no real physical me. The soul (or life force) is the only real me. If you and I (the souls) want to achieve the most from this earthly lifetime, the more varied the experiences we should seek. That said, it’s too easy for you and me to fall into a comfort zone and try to avoid change. To keep this from happening, the experiences change rapidly as a result of the body moving from infancy though old age. The physical changes help to enhance our learning curve, our ability to serve, and our chance to evolve.

Ability | Age | Body | Chance | Change | Comfort | Experience | Force | Infancy | Learning | Life | Life | Old age | Soul | Wisdom | Old |