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

Jiddu Krishnamurti

To be lonely, that is to feel oneself isolated, having no relationship with anything; in that sense of loneliness there is despair - there are moods, one is familiar with that sense of loneliness - and one runs away from it by turning on the radio, by reading a book, by sex and ten different activities. That loneliness is the very essence of self-consciousness. And when one goes beyond that, there is this state of attention in which there is complete aloneness, which is not isolation, which is not separation, which is not a withdrawal. Because it is only this aloneness, when the mind is no longer a plaything of thought, when thought has been understood totally - then out of that comes this sense of aloneness. it is that which is innocence, and it is that innocence which is beyond all mortality.

Attention | Despair | Innocence | Loneliness | Mind | Reading | Relationship | Sense | Thought | Thought |

John Calvin

To “justify” means nothing else than to acquit of guilt him who was accused as if his own innocence were confirmed.

Guilt | Innocence | Means | Nothing |

Kingman Brewster, Jr.

The presumption of innocence is not just a legal concept. In commonplace terms, it rests on that generosity of spirit which assumes the best, not the worst, of the stranger.

Generosity | Innocence | Presumption | Spirit |

Lewis H. Lapham

Unlike any other business in the United States, sports must preserve an illusion of perfect innocence. The mounting of this illusion defines the purpose and accounts for the immense wealth of American sports. It is the ceremony of innocence that the fans pay to see -- not the game or the match or the bout, but the ritual portrayal of a world in which time stops and all hope remains plausible, in which everybody present can recover the blameless expectations of a child, where the forces of light always triumph over the powers of darkness.

Business | Ceremony | Hope | Illusion | Innocence | Light | Present | Purpose | Purpose | Time | Wealth | World | Business |

Martin Tupper, fully Martin Farquhar Tupper

A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men.

Angels | Innocence | Peace |

Maria Montessori

Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.

Innocence | Reason | Respect | Respect |

Mignon McLaughlin

It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.

Ignorance | Innocence |

Milan Kundera

We must never allow the future to be weighed down by memory. For children have no past, and that is the whole secret of the magical innocence of their smiles.

Children | Future | Innocence |

Nathaniel Parker Willis

The innocence that feels no risk and is taught no caution, is more vulnerable than guilt, and oftener assailed.

Innocence | Risk |

Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh NULL

D.H. Lawrence was very much against your so-called education — it is not education, it is mis-education. Real education can only be based on love, not on knowledge. Real education cannot be utilitarian, real education cannot be of the marketplace. Not that real education will not give you knowledge; first, real education will prepare your heart, your love, and then whatever knowledge is needed to pass through life will be given to you, but that will be secondary. And it will never be overpowering; it will not be more valuable than love. And whenever there is a possibility of any conflict between love and knowledge, real education will help you to be ready to drop your knowledge and move with your love; it will give you courage, it will give you adventure. It will give you space to live, accepting all risks, insecurities; it will help you to be ready to sacrifice yourself if love demands it. It will put love not only above knowledge but even above life, because life is meaningless without love. Love without life is still meaningful; even if your body dies it makes no difference to your love energy. It continues, it is eternal, it is not a time phenomenon. To have a loving heart, you need a little less calculating head. To be capable of loving you need to be capable of wondering. That’s why, Nur, I always say that awe and childlike innocence are deeply related with the energy called love. In fact they are different names for the same thing.

Awe | Body | Education | Energy | Innocence | Knowledge | Life | Life | Little | Love | Need | Sacrifice | Space | Time | Will |

Pauline Kael

There are so many kinds of innocence to be lost at the movies. [about the title of her book, I Lost It At The Movies]

Innocence | Title |

Philip Massinger

What can innocence hope for when such as sit her judges are corrupted!

Hope | Innocence |

Philip Larkin, fully Philip Arthur Larkin

Never such innocence, Never before or since, As changed itself to past Without a word--the men Leaving the gardens tidy, The thousands of marriages Lasting a little while longer: Never such innocence again.

Innocence | Little | Men | Past |

Richard Carlson

As our appreciation of happiness in relationship increases, we take notice of the things that tend to take us away from this feeling. One major catalyst taking us away is the need to be right. An opinion that is taken too seriously sets up conditions that must be met first before you can be happy. In relationships, this might sound like 'You must agree with or see my point of view in order for me to love and respect you.' In a more positive feeling state, this attitude would seem silly or harmful. We can disagree, even on important issues, and still love one another - when our own thought systems no longer have control over our lives and we see the innocence in our divergent points of view.

Appreciation | Control | Important | Innocence | Love | Need | Opinion | Order | Relationship | Respect | Sound | Thought | Appreciation | Respect | Happiness | Thought |

Robertson Davies

I think possibly the final sophistication is the recovery of innocence. Where you really get where you take things rather simply. You can't have the innocence of peasants; you are not a peasant; you can't be one of them. But you have to work awfully hard to recover that with a few additional hot licks, by getting smart, wise. I think the final gift of sophistication would be a kind of innocent, clean view of things

Innocence | Work | Think |

Samuel Butler

Let every man be true and every god a liar.

Innocence |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

An intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

Age | Innocence |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

Affectation naturally counterfeits those excellencies which are farthest from our attainment, because knowing our defects we eagerly endeavor to supply them with artificial excellence.

Art | Hypocrisy | Innocence | Qualities | Art |