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

Egyptian Proverbs

Women cannot trust men.

Friend | Joy |

Egyptian Proverbs

For knowledge... you should know that peace is an indispensable condition of getting it.

Joy | Price |

Egyptian Proverbs

Give me a fish, I have the day's food. Teach me how to fish and I will have everyday's food.

Joy |

Elif Safak

The way we see what God is only a reflection of the way we see Anfsnna. If not God brings to our minds to fear and blame, it means that a great deal of fear and blame is flowing in our souls, but if we saw God full of love and compassion , we will be well

Joy | Pain | Universe | Will | Words | Gossip |

William Shakespeare

Shine comforts from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight From these that my poor company detest; And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.

Art | Beauty | Death | Enough | Evil | Father | Fortune | God | Good | Government | Heart | Rage | Shame | Tears | Vengeance | Virtue | Virtue | Government | Art | Beauty | God |

William Shakespeare

So, when this loose behavior I throw off and pay the debt I never promised, by how much better than my word I am, by so much shall I falsify men's hopes; and, like bright metal on a sullen ground, my reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault, shall show more goodly and attract more eyes than that which hath no foil to set it off.

Joy | Patience | Play |

William Shakespeare

Some grief shows much of love, but much of grief shows still some want of wit.

Better | Birth | Glory | Joy | Love | Pride |

William Shakespeare

Receive what cheer you may. The night is long that never finds the day.

Grave | Men | Pain | Pleasure | Quiet | Rage | Rest | Weapons | Will | Old |

William Shakespeare

Since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes--I will be brief.

Action | Beauty | Rage | Time | Beauty |

William Shakespeare

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, brief as the lightning in the collied night, that, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, and ere a man hath power to say, — Behold! The jaws of darkness do devour it up: so quick bright things come to confusion.

Joy | Pleasure | War |

Elizabeth Gilbert

So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, then drop it.

God | Joy | Mortal | Soul | Strength | God |

Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Children use the fist until they are of the age to use the brain.

Joy |

Elizabeth Gilbert

This is what we are like. Collectively as a species, this is our emotional landscape. I met an old lady once, almost 100 years old, and she told me, There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge? Everything else is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief, and suffering.

Ceremony | Culture | Feelings | Joy | Need | Order | Safe | Tradition |

Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sleep on, Baby, on the floor, tired of all the playing, sleep with smile the sweeter for that you dropped away in! On your curls' full roundness stand golden lights serenely-- one cheek, pushed out by the hand, folds the dimple inly.

Earth | Heaven | Joy |

Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Thank God for grace, Ye who weep only! If, as some have done, Ye grope tear-blinded in a desert place and touch but tombs,--look up! Those tears will run soon in long rivers down the lifted face, and leave the vision clear for stars and sun.

Good | Grief | Joy | Mortal | Trust |

Elizabeth Gilbert

This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.

Depression | Joy | Loneliness | Need |

Elizabeth Gilbert

We invented marriage. Couples invented marriage. We also invented divorce, mind you. And we invented infidelity, too, as well as romantic misery. In fact we invented the whole sloppy mess of love and intimacy and aversion and euphoria and failure. But most importantly of all, most subversively of all, most stubbornly of all, we invented privacy.

God | Joy | Mortal | God |

Ellen Goodman

I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference.

Joy | Neglect | Pleasure |

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Oh! I know this truth, if I know no other, that passionate Love is Pain's own mother.

Heart | Hope | Joy | Soul | Waiting |

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is the crown that glorifies; the curse that brands and burdens; it is life and death. It is the great law of the universe; and nothing can exist without its breath.

Cause | Joy | Recompense |