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

Murasaki Shikibu, aka Lady Murasaki

Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams.

Right | Woman |

Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban

These three ancient customs epitomize woman's ordinary way of life and the teachings of the traditional ceremonial rites and regulations. Let a woman modestly yield to others; 1et her respect others; let her put others first, herself last. Should she do something good, let her not mention it; should she do something bad let her not deny it. Let her bear disgrace; let her even endure when others speak or do evil to her. Always let her seem to tremble and to fear. When a woman follows such maxims as these then she may be said to humble herself before others.

Desire | Love | Virtue | Virtue | Woman |

Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban

Let a woman retire late to bed, but rise early to duties; let her nor dread tasks by day or by night. Let her not refuse to perform domestic duties whether easy or difficult. That which must be done, let her finish completely, tidily, and systematically, When a woman follows such rules as these, then she may be said to be industrious.

Character | Love | Order | Principles | Purity | Woman | Gossip |

Egyptian Proverbs

Admitting it when someone else is right is a virtue.

Will | Woman |

Egyptian Proverbs

When He opens up His path, may He carry me along, safe and sound.

Woman |

Egyptian Proverbs

The man who has plenty of means of existence, conducts himself pretty much as he himself wishes.

Man | Will | Woman |

Egyptian Proverbs

The barking of a dog does not disturb the man on a camel.

Woman |

Egyptian Proverbs

There are two kinds of error: blind credulity and piecemeal criticism. Never believe a word without putting its truth to the test; discernment does not grow in laziness; and this faculty of discernment is indispensable to the Seeker. Sound skepticism is the necessary condition for good discernment; but piecemeal criticism is an error.

Husband | Love | Possessions | Woman |

Elizabeth Dole, fully Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford "Liddy" Dole

My commitment is to strive to lean on the Lord with my whole heart, reading His word daily and earnestly seeking His will in my life.

Man | Will | Woman |

Elif Safak

Perhaps this is why lunatics have a harder time dating, not because they are off the wall but because it is hard to find someone who is willing to date so many people in one person.

Woman |

Elif Safak

No matter who, what part of the world we live, live, until a sense of a lack of deep down we are moving. It's a basic thing we are afraid of not getting lost it in the back. Bilenimizde what is missing very little indeed.

Change | Childhood | Life | Life | Religion | Sense | Time | Truth | Understanding | Woman | World |

Elif Safak

One thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldn’t change them. Instead of intrusion and passivity, may I suggest submission? Some people make the mistake of confusing submission with weakness, whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.

Balance | Conscience | Ends | Journey | Right | Style | Woman |

Eleanor Holmes Norton

They would have been pulling people off of Y2K to track funds, ... continue to do everything I can to protect those [federal Y2K] dollars for the district.

Woman |

William Shakespeare

SALERIO: Why, I am sure if he forfeit thou wilt not take his flesh. What's that good for? SHYLOCK: To bait fish withal—if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.

Death | Lying | Woman | Gossip |

William Shakespeare

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter, dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty, beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; as much as child e'er loved, or father found, a love that makes breath poor and speech unable.

Behavior | Cause | Children | Contempt | Counsel | Desire | Duty | Father | Fear | Friend | Good | Grace | Heaven | Honor | Love | Marriage | Mind | Obedience | Pity | Pleasure | Right | Sacred | Time | Wife | Will | Wise | Wit | Woman | Friendship | Counsel | Friends |

Elizabeth Gilbert

And what will I be able to do tomorrow that I cannot yet do today?

Enough | God | Good | Love | Nothing | Reading | Service | Story | Woman | God |

William Shakespeare

Such is my love, to thee I so belong, That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.

Duty | Woman |

Elizabeth Gilbert

But at some point you have to make peace with what you were given and if God wanted me to be a shy girl with thin, dark hair, He would have made me that way, but He didn't. Useful, then, might be to accept how I was made and embody myself fully therein.

Woman |

Elizabeth Gilbert

But why must everything have a practical application? I'd been such a diligent soldier for years - working, producing, never missing a deadline, taking care of my loved ones, my gums and my credit record, voting, etc. Is this lifetime supposed to be only about duty? In this dark period of loss, did I need any justification for learning Italian other than that it was the only thing I could imagine bringing me any pleasure right now?

Good | Love | Means | Woman |

Elizabeth Gilbert

I wonder if I am capable of being somebody’s sun, somebody’s everything. Am I centered enough now to be the center of somebody else’s life?

Argument | Family | Friend | Good | History | Ideas | Woman | Think |