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

William Morris

I know a little garden close Set thick with lily and red rose, where I would wander if I might from dewy dawn to dewy night. And have one with me wandering.

Counsel | Distinction | Greed | Hope | Knowledge | Leisure | Money | Poverty | War | Counsel |

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

Everyone agrees that a secret should be kept intact, but everyone does not agree as to the nature and importance of secrecy. Too often we consult ourselves as to what we should say, what we should leave unsaid. There are few permanent secrets, and the scruple against revealing them will not last forever.

Knowledge | Pleasure |

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

Few people know death, we only endure it, usually from determination, and even from stupidity and custom; and most men only die because they know not how to prevent dying.

Criticism | People | Praise | Wisdom |

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

The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others.

Ability | Age | Genius | Knowledge | Value |

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

However great the advantages which nature bestows on us, it is not she alone, but fortune in conjunction with her, which makes heroes.

Action | Wisdom |

William Shakespeare

Of all the men alive I never yet beheld that special face which I could fancy more than any other.

Good | Knowledge | Wise |

William Shakespeare

One that hath been a courtier, and says, if ladies be but young and fair, they have the gift to know it.

Love | Waiting | Wisdom | Think |

Hakuin, fully Hakuin Akaku NULL

Should you desire great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

Practice | Wisdom | Old |

Padmasambhava, literally "Lotus-Born",aka "Second Buddha", better known as Guru Rinpoche (lit. "Precious Guru") or Lopon Rinpoche NULL

Fortunate ones, mingle your mind with the Dharma and the happiness of Buddhahood will manifest within you!

Evil | Good | Mind | Wisdom |

Edwin Percy Whipple

We all originally came from the woods! it is hard to eradicate from any of us the old taste for the tattoo and the war-paint; and the moment that money gets into our pockets, it somehow or another breaks out in ornaments on our person, without always giving refinement to our manners.

Age | Experience | Knowledge | Memory |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Thus, through conjunction with the Self (purusha), the insentient seems to be sentient, and though the agency really belongs to the gunas, the neutral stranger appears as if it were active.

Knowledge | Virtue | Virtue | Vice |

Padmasambhava, literally "Lotus-Born",aka "Second Buddha", better known as Guru Rinpoche (lit. "Precious Guru") or Lopon Rinpoche NULL

When asked about the importance of receiving teachings on dedication, Gape Lama answered, "Whatever Dharma practice we engage in, large or small, we must dedicate the merit. If we fail to dedicate, then whatever merit we have accumulated can be lost very easily in a moment of anger, or in giving rise to any afflictive emotion or action."

Awareness | Mind | Wisdom | Awareness |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The conjunction of the two, like that of the lame and the blind, is for the perception of Nature (pradhana) by the Self (purusha) and for the release of the Self. From this conjunction proceeds evolution.

Knowledge | Principles | Study |

Edward Scribner Ames

We have overdeveloped the individualism that arose in a pioneer country. We are destined to become more co-operative, more collectivistic, and to find in this direction still greater opportunity for the individual, not so much restricted and defeated by competition but enlarged and enhanced by the support of a common will. It may be that the problem of material goods--of the necessary but yet external goods of food, clothing, shelter, and money-is about to be solved through new discoveries and developments, with the energies of men left freer than they have ever been to cultivate on higher levels the sharable goods of life, such as love and wisdom. These values grow with use and multiply by being freely shared.

Business | Church | Defiance | God | Isolation | Knowledge | Organic | Sense | Society | Society | Business | God | Old |

Hakuin, fully Hakuin Akaku NULL

What is that which asks such a question? Is it your mind? Is it your original nature? Is it some kind of spirit or demon? Is it inside you? Outside you? Is it somewhere intermediate? Is it blue, yellow, red, or white?

Parents | Practice | Study | Wisdom |

Edwin Way Teale

How vivid is the suffering of the few when the people are few and how the suffering of nameless millions in two world wars is blurred over by numbers.

Knowledge |

Edwin Hubbell Chapin

There is no mockery like the mockery of that spirit which looks around in the world and believes that all is emptiness.

Mankind | Wisdom |

Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL

Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.

Books | Knowledge | Need | Wealth |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Perception, inference and testimony are recognized as the threefold proof, since all other proofs are included in these. The establishment of all that is to be proven depends, verily, on the means of demonstration.

Knowledge |