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

Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl

Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.

Chance | Man |

Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

Sages discovered this link of the existent to the nonexistent, having searched in the heart with wisdom.

People | Praise |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

He performs worship ceremonies, applies the ceremonial tilak mark to his forehead, and takes his ritual cleansing baths; he pulls out his knife, and demands donations.

Praise |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

In his hearth and home, in his palace, upon his soft and comfortable bed, day and night, the flower-girls scatter flower petals; but without the Lord's Name, the body is miserable. Horses, elephants, lances, marching bands, armies, standard bearers, royal attendants and ostentatious displays - without the Lord of the Universe, these undertakings are all useless.

Anxiety | Anxiety | Applause | Envy | Eternal | Ideals | Men | Praise | Self | Society | Society |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

The same gold is fashioned into various articles; just so, the Lord has made the many patterns of the creation.

Praise | Worship |

Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

You must be uncomfortable when those around you are unhappy; when you ease their discomfort, you are making them happy and making yourself happy, isn't it?

Men | People | Praise | Strength | Weakness |

Václav Havel

You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it.

Authority | Awareness | Capacity | Earth | Honor | Hope | Nothing | Order | People | Respect | Right | Rights | Will | World | Respect | Awareness | Value |

Václav Havel

Poles are able to reflect their history, they respect it. Who knows if anybody will remember when we commemorate our 25 years [since the 1989 Velvet Revolution].

Authority | History | Meaning | Space | Time | World | Value |

Václav Havel

I believe that during the intervention of NATO in Kosovo there is an element nobody can question: the air attacks, the bombs, are not caused by a material interest. Their character is exclusively humanitarian: What is at stake here are the principles, human rights which have priority above state sovereignty. This makes it legitimate to attack the Yugoslav Federation, although without the United Nations mandate.

Desire | Education | Focus | Future | Will |

Václav Havel

It has become clear that the legacy of the past decades we have to cope with is even worse than we anticipated or could anticipate in the joyful atmosphere of those first weeks of freedom. New problems are emerging day by day, and we can see how interconnected they are, how long it takes to solve them, and how difficult it is to establish priorities.

Change | Global | Purpose | Purpose | Spirit | Understanding | Will |

Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

They knew that their anarchism was the product of a very high civilization, of a complex diversified culture, of a stable economy and a highly industrialized technology that could maintain high production and rapid transportation of goods. However vast the distances separating settlements, they held to the ideal of complex organicism.

Children | Despair | Evil | Happy | Pain | People | Praise | Treason | Trouble | Happiness |

Václav Havel

The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance.

Ideas | Salvation | World |

Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

It is a pity that men cannot usually possess no talent without any desire to put others down.

Mediocrity | Praise |

Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

We must all wait and worry all the time and men.

Love | Praise |

Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun

The image of the Buddha on the altar is clearly not a divinity or Sage. It is a representation, an artistic image ... that points back to human who realized the highest wisdom. The Buddha cultivated his nature to an awakened state. The image symbolizes his realization of humanity's potential and aspiration for the highest goodness and compassion. When you bow, symbolically you honor your own potential for great wisdom. Furthermore, bowing is good exercise. It is not idol worship, which is superstitious and passive. Bowing to the Buddha is a practice of a principle; it is dynamic and active.

Anger | Blame | Conduct | Good | Ignorance | Mind | Praise |

Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun

All afflictions are based on selfishness. That's why we have so much anger and so many afflictions.

Fault | Good | Praise | Slander | Will | Wisdom | Slander | Fault |

Tryon Edwards

Much of the glory and sublimity of truth is connected with its mystery. - To understand everything we must be as God.

Censure | Praise | Superiority | Wisdom |

Turkish Proverbs

Every bad has its worse. (Used to make a point that things can always go even worse and one should make the best of current situation.)

Praise |

Thucydides NULL

For so remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises whoever courts him, and admires whoever will not bend before him.

Action | Day | Earth | Famous | Freedom | Glory | Greatness | Honor | Knowing | Knowledge | Love | Men | Mortal | Praise | Sense | Speech | Story | Will | Happiness |