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

Elizabeth Gilbert

Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.

Ego | Mind | Perfection | Silence |

Elizabeth Gilbert

We must take care of our families wherever we find them.

Love | Mind |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Where did you get the idea you aren't allowed to petition the universe with prayer? You are part of this universe, Liz. You're a constituent--you have every entitlement to participate in the actions of the universe, and to let your feelings be known. So, put your opinion out there. Make your case. Believe me--it will at least be taken into consideration.

Mind | Space | Old |

Elizabeth Janeway, born Elizabeth Ames Hall

I have a problem about being nearly sixty: I keep waking up in the morning and thinking I'm thirty-one.

Change | Mind | People |

Elizabeth Lesser

What will matter is the good we did, not the good we expected others to do.

Beginning | Body | Earth | Heart | Mind | Pain | Solitude | Spirit | Spirituality | Time |

Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

O rose, who dares to name thee? No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet, but pale, and hard, and dry, as stubblewheat,-- kept seven years in a drawer, thy titles shame thee.

Cause | Enough | Life | Life | Peace | Think |

Elizabeth Gilbert

So when modern-day religious conservatives wax nostalgic about how marriage is a sacred tradition that reaches back into history for thousands of uninterrupted years, they are correct, but in only one respect - only if they happen to be talking about Judaism. Christianity simply does not share that deep and consistent historical reverence toward matrimony. Lately it has, yes- but not originally. For the first thousand or so years of Christian history, the church regarded monogamous marriage as marginally less wicked that flat-out whoring but only very marginally.

Care | Death | Depression | Friend | Lending | Life | Life | Loneliness | Love | Mind | Mistake | Need | Nothing | Office | Reason | Reflection | Sadness | Security | Time | Waiting | Will | Writing |

Elizabeth Lesser

One of the problems of contemporary culture is that life moves at such a quick pace, we usually don't give ourselves time to feel and listen deeply. You may have to take deliberate action to nurture the soul. If you want to increase your soul's bank account, you may have to seek out the unfamiliar and do things that at first could feel uncomfortable. Give yourself time as you experiment. How will you know if you're on the right track? I like Rumi's counsel: 'When you do something from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.'

Age | Better | Cause | Earth | Enlightenment | Fame | Famous | Fortune | Good | Illusion | Kill | Labor | Light | Man | Mind | Money | People | Present | Problems | Shame | Terrorism | Work | Worry | Instruction | Understand |

Elizabeth Gilbert

This was my voice, but perfectly wise, calm and compassionate. This was what my voice would sound like if I’d only ever experienced love and certainty in my life. How can I describe the warmth of affection in that voice, as it gave me the answer that would forever seal my faith in the divine?

Peace |

Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra May NULL

The right to change the government by the ballot box and not the barrel of a gun; perhaps the best definition of a democracy.

Individual | Life | Life | Peace | Will |

Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra May NULL

My mortal foe can no ways wish me a greater harm than England's hate; neither should death be less welcome unto me than such a mishap betide me.

Mind |

Elizabeth Gould Davis

Men need women more than women need men; and so, aware of this fact, man has sought to keep woman dependent upon him economically as the only method open to him of making himself necessary to her.

Defeat | Men | Mind | Qualities |

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

All the men of the Old Testament were polygamists, and Christ and Paul, the central figures of the New Testament, were celibates, and condemned marriage by both precept and example.

Children | Mind |

Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra May NULL

In tomorrow's world we must all work together as hard as ever, if we're truly to be United Nations

Peace | Suffering | War |

Ellen Glasgow, fully Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow

In the past few years, I have made a thrilling discovery ... that until one is over sixty, one can never really learn the secret of living. One can then begin to live, not simply with the intense part of oneself, but with one's entire being.

Peace | Pleasure | Friendship |

Emil M. Cioran

I pride myself on my capacity to perceive the transitory character of everything. An odd gift which spoiled all my joys; better: all my sensations. I have decided not to oppose anyone ever again, since I have noticed that I always end by resembling my latest enemy.

Mind |

Dorothy Parker

For years I have been crouching in corners hissing small and ladylike anathema of Theodore Dreiser.

Mind |

Emil M. Cioran

An individual dies ... when, instead of taking risks and hurling himself toward being, he cowers within, and takes refuge there.

Knowledge | Mind |

Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg

There is granted to everyone after death the opportunity of amending his life, if it is at all possible.

Earnestness | Mind | Power | Spirit | Work |