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

Hans Schärer

All ceremonies of transition, such as birth... marriage and death correspond very closely with each other in that on every occasion they repeat the drama of primeval creation.

Birth | Death | Marriage |

Robert V. Taylor, aka The Very Reverend Robert V. Taylor

If there is a time of judgment, instead of theological or institutional litmus tests, the only question asked about our life and spirituality will be "Did you love with abandonment?"

Judgment | Life | Life | Love | Question | Spirituality | Time | Will |

Katha Upanishad

Who sees variety and not the unity wanders on from death to death.

Death | Unity |

Ezriel Tauber

The question is not: Do we identify with something or not? The question is: What do we identify with?

Question |

Lord Trent, aka Baron Trent, Sir Jesse Boot, 1st Baronet

As I learnt very early in my life in Whitehall, the acid test of any political question is: What is the alternative?

Life | Life | Question |

Teresa of Avila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL

Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.

Care | Death | Eternal | Glory | Life | Life | Nothing | Soul | Will |

Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi

I believe that the true welfare of man lies in the fulfillment of the Will of God; and that His will consists in men loving each other, and therefore behaving toward others as they desire that others should behave with them. I believe that the meaning of life of every man, therefore, lies only in the increase of love in himself; that this increase of love leads the individual man in this life toward greater and greater welfare; that after death it gives the greater welfare the more love there be in the man; and that, at the same time, more than anything else, it contributes to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, i.e., to an order of life where the discord, deceit, and violence which now reign will be replaced by free agreement, truth, and brotherly love between men.

Death | Deceit | Desire | Earth | Fulfillment | God | Individual | Life | Life | Love | Man | Meaning | Men | Order | Time | Truth | Will | God |

Zhang Zai, also Chang Tsai

Wealth and honor, benefits and blessings shall enrich my life; poverty and failures, grief and anxiety shall help fulfill it. In my life, I will serve heaven and earth; in death I will find peace.

Anxiety | Anxiety | Blessings | Death | Earth | Grief | Heaven | Honor | Life | Life | Peace | Poverty | Wealth | Will |

Elie Wiesel, fully Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel

The opposite of death is not life, it’s indifference.

Death | Indifference | Life | Life |

Frances Wright, known as Fanny Wright

I am not going to question your opinions. I am not going to meddle with your belief. I am not going to dictate to you mine. All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

Belief | Faith | Nature | Question | Reason | Search | Understand |

Yajnavalkya NULL

The soul after death goes nowhere where it has not been from the very beginning, nor does it become other than that which it has always been, the one eternal omi-present.

Beginning | Death | Eternal | Present | Soul |

Wang Yu-p’u

A person who always makes the way for other son the road won’t waste one hundred steps in his whole life. He who always gives in on a question of boundaries won’t lose even a single section over the course of his life.

Life | Life | Question | Waste |

Arnold R Beisser

Who I am in this moment between life and death is what I believe I am, and what I believe I am allows some room for choice.

Choice | Death | Life | Life |