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

Nnamdi Azikiwe, fully Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, aka "The Zik of Africa"

Originality is the essence of true scholarship. Creativity is the soul of the true scholar.

Creativity | Originality | Scholar | Soul |

Frank Barron

The use of creativity as an instrument for personal and social gain is by no means the whole story. In its deeper philosophical implications, creativity is a quest for meaning. It is an attempt to penetrate the mystery of the self, and perhaps the even greater mystery of Being.

Creativity | Meaning | Means | Mystery | Self | Story |

Irving Singer

Our species is unique in its great creativity with respect to meaningfulness. Our systems of meaning vary tremendously from moment to moment, from one individual to another, and from society to society.

Creativity | Individual | Meaning | Respect | Society | Unique | Society | Respect |

Arthur Koestler

True creativity often starts where language ends.

Creativity | Ends | Language |

Carl Sagan

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

Creativity | Science | Skepticism |

Denis Diderot

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the step toward truth.

Skepticism | Truth |

Joan Borysenko

In a closed system of energy based on fear and lack, abundance in one place creates lack in another. In an open system of energy, based on faith and love, abundance begets more abundance, and creativity flourishes.

Abundance | Creativity | Energy | Faith | Fear | Love | System |

Japanese Proverbs

I will master something, then the creativity will come.

Creativity | Will |

Jan Phillips

Committing to our creativity is an act of faith, a promise that we will keep at it despite our fears and failings and despite whatever obstacles we find in our paths.

Creativity | Faith | Promise | Will |

Joan Borysenko

Four things are required to develop generosity of spirit: (1) The intention to serve God in all our affairs. (2) The belief that if that intention is honored, the Universe will provide all that is required materially and spiritually for our success. (3) The understanding that we receive as we give, and that our own creativity is enhanced through mentoring others. (4) Practical groundedness. God can’t deliver the lottery jackpot unless we buy a ticket!

Belief | Creativity | Generosity | God | Intention | Receive | Spirit | Success | Understanding | Universe | Will | God |

Karl Barth

Tolerance in the sense of moderation or superior knowledge or skepticism is actually the worst form of intolerance.

Intolerance | Knowledge | Moderation | Sense | Skepticism | Moderation |

Julia Cameron

Creativity requires faith... creativity requires receptivity and profound trust.

Creativity | Faith | Trust |

Shunryu Suzuki, also Daisetsu Teitaro or D.T. Suzuki or Suzuki-Roshi

When one’s mind is religiously awakened, one feels as though in every blade of wild fern and solid stone there is something really transcending all human feelings, something which lifts one to be a real equal to that of heaven. He plunges himself into the very source of creativity and there drinks from life all that life has to give. He not only sees by taking a look, but he enters into the source of things and knows them at the point where life receives its existence.

Creativity | Existence | Feelings | Heaven | Life | Life | Mind |

Thomas Henry Huxley, aka T.H. Huxley and Darwin's Bulldog

The improver of knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

Authority | Faith | Knowledge | Sin | Skepticism |

Thomas Moore

Religion in the deepest sense takes shape as we learn through pain and loss that the creativity we exercise over our lives is finite, a mere participation in a greater creative act.

Creativity | Pain | Religion | Sense | Loss | Learn |

Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant

So I say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with skepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure. A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean.

Civilization | Individual | Pleasure | Religion | Skepticism | Stoic | Unbelief |

Clarence Darrow, fully Clarence Seward Darrow

The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.

Beginning | Death | Doubt | Fear | God | Skepticism | Study | Wisdom | God |

Arianna Huffington, born Arianna Stassinopoulos

Our current obsession with creativity is the result of our continued striving for immortality in an era when most people no longer believe in an after-life.

Creativity | Era | Immortality | Life | Life | Obsession | People |