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

Charlene Spretnak

Without nonviolence - mind states of loving kindness and compassion - at the core of our societal construct, however, even the desire to protect and preserve can be manipulated in service to barbarism masquerading as idealism.

Barbarism | Compassion | Desire | Idealism | Kindness | Mind | Service |

Shantideva NULL

Eager to escape sorrow, men rush into sorrow; from desire of happiness they blindly slay their own happiness, enemies to themselves.

Desire | Men | Sorrow | Happiness |

Fulton Sheen, fully Archbishop Fulton John Sheen

We desire unity of religion but not when purchased at the cost of the unity of truth.

Cost | Desire | Religion | Truth | Unity |

Ralph Waldo Trine

Many will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by a practice somewhat after the following nature: Wit a mind at peace, and with a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your own interior self, holding the thought - I am one with the Infinite Spirit of Life, the life of my life. I then as spirit, I a spiritual being, can in my own real nature admit of no disease. I now open my body, in w2hich disease has obtained a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowing tide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in and coursing through my body, and the healing process is going on. Realize this so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warming glow imparted by the life forces to the body. Believe the healing process is going on. Believe it, and hold continually to it. Many people greatly desire a certain thing but expect something else. They have greater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and hence they remain ill.

Body | Desire | Disease | Evil | Faith | Good | Heart | Life | Life | Love | Mind | Nature | Peace | People | Power | Practice | Quiet | Receive | Self | Spirit | Thought | Will | Wit | Following | Thought |

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 |

Kaushitaki Upanishad

Speech is; not what one should desire to understand. One should know the speaker.

Desire | Speech |

John Wesley

Conquer desire and you will conquer fear. But as long as you are a slave you must be a coward.

Desire | Fear | Will |

Alexander Yelchaninov

Faith is a free choice; wherever there is a desire of proof... there is no faith.

Choice | Desire | Faith | Free choice |

Benjamin Franklin

Moderate your desire of victory over your adversary, and be pleased with the one over yourself.

Desire |

David Dibble

Being Those who are driven by a burning desire or higher purpose usually achieve great deeds. This purpose transcends money, security, or status. It is the knowledge that they are part of something worthy, right, and valuable.

Deeds | Desire | Knowledge | Money | Purpose | Purpose | Right | Security |

Kigezi Proverb

The path to your heart’s desire is never overgrown.

Desire | Heart |

Gerald Alexander Larue

The secular or freethinking humanist looks into the self for guidance; response to need comes from deep human feelings of compassion, concern for others, and a desire to help. The freethinker is not motivated by a divine command to act, but rather by personal humanistic response to pain, loneliness, hunger, and homelessness. Benevolent actions are not accompanied by a need to convert or indoctrinate, but rather flow from deep human wellsprings of empathy and a desire to improve the condition of the world.

Compassion | Desire | Empathy | Feelings | Guidance | Hunger | Loneliness | Looks | Need | Pain | Self | World |

Adam Smith

The desire of food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of the human stomach; but the desire of the conveniences and ornaments of building, dress, equipage, and household furniture, seems to have no limit or certain boundary.

Capacity | Desire | Man |

Aesop NULL

The desire for imaginary benefits often involves the loss of present blessings.

Blessings | Desire | Present | Loss |