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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and some absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Day | Doubt | Good | Nonsense | Spirit | Tomorrow | Waste | Old |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.

Day | Doubt | Good | Nonsense | Spirit | Tomorrow | Waste | Old |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Day | Doubt | Good | Nonsense | Spirit | Tomorrow | Waste | Old |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.

Character | Doubt | Will | Worship | Think |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Day | Doubt | Nonsense | Spirit | Tomorrow | Old |

Robert Frost

Belief is better than anything else, and it is best when rapt - above paying its respects to anybody's doubt whatsoever.

Belief | Better | Doubt |

Sosan Zenji, aka Chien-chih Seng-Tsan or Ch'an Seng-ts'an

To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say when doubt arises, “Not two.” In this “not two” nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. No matter when or where, enlightenment means entering this truth. And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space; in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

Doubt | Enlightenment | Harmony | Means | Nothing | Reality | Space | Thought | Time | Truth | Thought |

Thomas Carlyle

Skepticism means, not intellectual doubt alone, but moral doubt.

Doubt | Means | Skepticism |

Thomas Carlyle

A man’s religion consists, not of the many things he is in doubt of and tries to believe, but of the few he is assured of, and has no need of effort for believing.

Doubt | Effort | Man | Need | Religion |

William Shakespeare

Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.

Doubt | Wise |

William Hazlitt

To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it.

Doubt | Reason |

Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL

Of all religions, the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

Doubt | Men |

William Ernest Hocking

Man is the only animal that contemplates death, and also the only animal that shows any sign of doubt of its finality. This does not mean that he doubts it as a future fact. He accepts his own death, with that of others, as inevitable; plans for it; provides for the time when he shall be out of the picture. Yet, not less today than formerly, he confronts this fact with a certain incredulity regarding the scope of its destruction.

Death | Doubt | Man |

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 |

Doris Lessing, fully Doris May Lessing, born Doris May Tayler

There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.

Better | Doubt | Truth |

Doris Lessing, fully Doris May Lessing, born Doris May Tayler

But there is no doubt that to attempt a novel of ideas is to give oneself a handicap: the parochialism of our culture is intense. For instance, decade after decade bright young men and women emerge from their universities able to say proudly: 'Of course I know nothing about German literature.' It is the mode. The Victorians knew everything about German literature, but were able with a clear conscience not to know much about the French.

Conscience | Culture | Doubt | Ideas | Literature | Men | Nothing |

Don Herold

Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.

Knowing | Unhappiness |

Duane Elgin

There is a field of energy that permeates the universe. This is understood by science, and now what we're beginning to discover is that field of energy is alive. One of its qualities is sentience or consciousness, and we can interact with that field. We're not just closed off in our physical bodies. We have the capacity to interact with the larger field of consciousness; it permeates our lives and touches us day-in and day-out. If there is needless suffering happening in the world, it tinges and colors the ocean of consciousness that we swim in, and we imbibe this daily. So, if we can create a world without undue suffering--one where we're not killing off all of these species and harming one another--it will change the atmosphere of our lives.

Beginning | Capacity | Change | Consciousness | Day | Energy | Qualities | Science | Suffering | Universe | Will | World |