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

B. H. Liddell Hart, fully Captain B. H. Liddell

Be very careful never to show your own bias to anyone who is giving you information, or passing it on to you. Once he sees that you have a particular inclination he will instinctively tend to tell you what he thinks will suit you, and enhance your opinion of him.

Giving | Inclination | Opinion | Will |

Jesse Helms, fully Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr.

There is no lie too improbable, no distortion too great, no smear campaign too dirty for the State Department and the media to embrace.

Dirty |

David R. Hawkins, fully David Ramon Hawkins

In Reality, nothing requires explanation. Nothing is caused by anything else. Existence requires no explanation nor does it have any dependence on any other state or quality. This understanding is clarified by the realization that nothing in and of itself has any `meaning’. Therefore, neither does it have `purpose’. Everything is already complete and merely self-existent as its own self-identity.

Dependence | Existence | Meaning | Nothing | Purpose | Purpose | Reality | Self | Self-identity | Understanding |

Jean Grou, fully Jean Nicholas Grou

What is the greatest evil of suffering? Not the suffering itself but our rebellion against it, the state of interior revolt which so often accompanies it.

Evil | Rebellion | Suffering |

David R. Hawkins, fully David Ramon Hawkins

How does one find Reality? Truth is radical subjectivity. With the collapse of the illusions of duality, including the supposed `reality’ of a separate `self’, there remains only the state of the Infinite `I’, which is the manifestation of the Unmanifest as the Self. There is neither subject nor object. Like infinite space, there is no distance, time, duration, or locality. All prevails simultaneously. All is self-evident, self-aware, self-revealing, and total.

Duality | Object | Reality | Self | Space | Time | Truth |

Felix Greene

To keep people buying, you need first to make them dissatisfied with what they have… Advertising is nothing more than a technique to keep people in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction with what they possess and in a permanent state of itchy acquisitiveness.

Advertising | Need | Nothing | People |

Václav Havel

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good… Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons… Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather and ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Ability | Chance | Good | Hope | Joy | Mind | Observation | Sense | Success | Will | Work | World |

Bakola wa Ilunga

There is no liberation without prophets. The story of the exodus makes it quite clear that a people does not spontaneously struggle out of a state of wretched dependence.

Dependence | People | Story | Struggle |

Joris-Karl "J.K." Huysmans, pseudonym for Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans

The prayers of the liturgy alone can be uttered with impunity by any man, for it is the peculiarity of these aspirations that they adapt themselves in all ages to every state of mind and every phase of life.

Life | Life | Man | Mind | Peculiarity |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

He that feels himself alarmed by his conscience, anxious for the attainment of a better state and afflicted by the memory of his past faults, may justly conclude that the great work of repentance has begun.

Attainment | Better | Conscience | Memory | Past | Repentance | Work |

David Hockey

Subconsciously (particularly in the West), we still expect that limitless expansion - moving on, growing, and building a place of our own – will always be the intrinsic state of affairs. Expansion is necessary for life’s continued development – even expansion into space, throughout our galaxy and into others beyond. Evolutionary change occurs only when possible and advantageous; when niches open up, when food supplies vary, or when a mutation confers a bonus. If niches never alter, change brings penalty, not reward. If we choose zero growth, if we immobilize our niche, we will cease evolving. Without challenge, we do not advance.

Challenge | Change | Growth | Life | Life | Reward | Space | Will |

Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.

Happiness |

Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.

Freedom | Will |

Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

So long as the state exists there is no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state.

Freedom | Will |

Bertrand de Jouvenel, fully Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins

Ever increase of state authority must involve an immediate diminution of the liberty of each citizen.

Authority | Liberty |

Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller

I believe in immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings. I believe that the state we enter after death is wrought of our own motives, thoughts, and deeds... I carry a magic light in my heart. Faith, the spiritual strong searchlight, illumines the way, and although sinister doubts lurk in the shadow, I walk unafraid towards the Enchanted Wood where the foliage is always green, where joy abides, where nightingales nest and sing, and where life and death are one in the Presence of the Lord.

Death | Deeds | Faith | Heart | Immortality | Joy | Life | Life | Light | Lord | Magic | Motives | Soul |

Bibhuti Mazumder

If you pursue happiness as the ultimate goal of your living, you will be drifting away from happiness and your real being. Happiness is not a transcendental state of mind that is very difficult to have. It is the joyful expression of enlightened mind and is born of unconditional love.

Love | Mind | Will | Happiness |