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

William Penn

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a great virtue: it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, and prevents sin.

Body | Folly | Mind | Rest | Silence | Sin | Spirit | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom |

Novalis, pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg NULL

It is not merely the multiplicity of tints, the gladness of tone, or the balminess of the air which delight in the spring; it is the still consecrated spirit of hope, the prophecy of happy days yet to come; the endless variety of nature, with presentiments of eternal flowers which never shall fade and sympathy with the blessedness of the ever-developing world.

Blessedness | Eternal | Happy | Hope | Nature | Prophecy | Spirit | Sympathy | Wisdom | World |

Theodore Roethke

The self says, I am; the heart says, I am less; the spirit says, you are nothing.

Heart | Nothing | Self | Spirit | Wisdom |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favorable to tyranny that it always profits by such a regime. True Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and do not much mind: this short life counts for too little in their eyes.

Dependence | Life | Life | Little | Mind | Servitude | Spirit | Tyranny | Wisdom |

Sa'di (or Saadi), pen name of Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, born Muslih-uddin NULL

Hunger is a cloud out of which falls a rain of eloquence and knowledge; when the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; when it is full, the spirit becomes body.

Body | Hunger | Knowledge | Spirit | Wisdom |

Karl von Schmidt

The form of government is unimportant - the spirit everything.

Government | Spirit | Wisdom | Government |

Albert Schweitzer

By the spirit of the age... the man of today is forced into skepticism about his own thinking, in order to make him receptive to truth which comes to him from authority... Truth taken over by skepticism which has become believing... is not capable of uniting itself with him to the very marrow of his being.

Age | Authority | Man | Order | Skepticism | Spirit | Thinking | Truth | Wisdom |

Charles P. Steinmetz, fully Charles Proteus Steinmetz, born Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz

The man who is hard to satisfy moves forward. The man who sits back comfortably and is satisfied with what he has accomplished moves backward. If I were to bequeath to every young man one virtue, I would give him the spirit of divine dissatisfaction, for without it, the world would stand still.

Man | Spirit | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | World |

Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg

The life of any one can by no means be changed after death; an evil life can in no wise be converted into a good life, or an infernal into an angelic life; because every spirit, from head to foot, is of the character of love, and, therefore, of his life; and to convert this life into its opposite would be to destroy the spirit utterly.

Character | Death | Destroy | Evil | Good | Life | Life | Love | Means | Spirit | Wisdom | Wise |

David Spangler

Ultimately, our purpose is to be so alive, compassionate and creative in our own lives that the whole universe quivers with excitement and enthusiasm and brings forth a new spirit, a new possibility, in our midst. Our purpose is to be both the womb and the midwife for the birthing into our world of a holy spirit filled with new potentials for life and creativity. We exist in order to quicken the creativity and spirit of our world so that new worlds, new wonders, new blessings may emerge... To truly appreciate the meaning of life, we must be prepared to let the meanings we have known stand in the presence of new insights and be transformed. We have no final answers, only the questions that lead to further discoveries, creativity and emergence. We are here that life may discover, know and express itself more abundantly for the blessing and fulfillment of all creation - past, present and potential.

Blessings | Creativity | Enthusiasm | Excitement | Fulfillment | Life | Life | Meaning | Order | Past | Present | Purpose | Purpose | Spirit | Universe | Wisdom | World |

Lawrence Sterne, alternatively Laurence Sterne

Both music and painting add a spirit to devotion, and elevate the ardor.

Devotion | Music | Spirit | Wisdom |