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

Jerry Falwell

No earthly purpose satisfies man’s longing to find his eternal reason for being... Man seeks incessantly for the meaning of life until he discovers the single eternal purpose for his existence. That purpose is the same for every man and woman. God created us because He longs to enter into fellowship with us. We belong to Him by right of creation. We can never know order and harmony in this life until we choose to establish a right relationship with God... Our search for meaning to life will end only when we establish that personal relationship with God and begin our walk with Him - for time and for eternity. Then comes that glorious personal fulfillment described in holy writ as the “peace that passes all understanding.”

Eternal | Eternity | Existence | Fulfillment | God | Harmony | Life | Life | Longing | Man | Meaning | Order | Peace | Purpose | Purpose | Reason | Relationship | Right | Search | Time | Understanding | Will | Wisdom | Woman | God |

François Fénelon, fully Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

How different the peace of god from that of the world! It calms the passions, preserves the purity of conscience, is inseparable from righteousness, unites us to God and strengthens us against temptations. The peace of the soul consists in an absolute resignation to the will of God.

Absolute | Conscience | God | Peace | Purity | Resignation | Righteousness | Soul | Will | Wisdom | World | God |

François Fénelon, fully Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

How rare to find a soul still enough to hear God speak.

Enough | God | Soul | Wisdom | God |

Saint Gertrude, aka Saint Gertrude of Nivelles NULL

It is a fearful mistake to believe that because our wishes are not accomplished that they can do no harm.

Harm | Mistake | Wisdom | Wishes |

William Ewart Gladstone

Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.

Argument | Logic | Men | Mind | Mistake | Strength | Wisdom |

Henry Giles

Man is greater than a world, than systems of worlds; there is more mystery in the union of soul with the physical than in the creation of a universe.

Man | Mystery | Soul | Universe | Wisdom | World |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the later lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.

Error | Search | Truth | Wisdom |

Benjamin Franklin

Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul, and never forget to have a penny, when all thy expenses are enumerated and paid: then shalt thou reach the point of happiness and independence shall by thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds.

Abuse | Honesty | Riches | Soul | Wisdom | Happiness |

Brian Greer

There is no separation between a patient’s neurobiology, spiritual life, life perspectives, and quality of life force. Words, and spiritual/therapeutic interventions can tangibly affect a patient’s neurochemistry and physical health just as assuredly as psycho-pharmacological drugs can tangibly affect a patient’s feelings and thoughts... I have found that working with the meaning of a patient’s illness can profoundly alter not only the prognosis but can influence and give meaning to all other aspects of a patient’s life. Depression, for example, is often a direct communication from the soul that one’s belief system is not working... It is all too easy, and part of the human condition, to be misled by our lower half into believing that the sensory world is all that’s real.

Belief | Depression | Example | Feelings | Force | Health | Influence | Life | Life | Meaning | Soul | System | Wisdom | Words | World |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There is no more lovely worship of God than that for which no image is required, but which springs up in our breast spontaneously when nature speaks to the soul, and the soul speaks to nature face to face.

God | Nature | Soul | Wisdom | Worship | God |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

Beauty | Soul | Wisdom | Beauty |

Isaac Thomas Hecker

Religion is the answer to that cry of Reason which nothing can silence, that aspiration of the soul which no created thing can meet, that want of the heart which all creation cannot supply.

Aspiration | Heart | Nothing | Reason | Religion | Silence | Soul | Wisdom | Aspiration |

Frederick Hertz, until 1946 Friedrich Otto Hertz, aka Germanus Liber

At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being.

Assertion | God | Heart | Mistake | People | Wisdom | God |