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

John Quincy Adams

In what light so ever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.

Bible | History | Knowledge | Light | Morality | Regard | Revelation | Virtue | Virtue |

Joseph Butler

Virtue is not to be considered in the light of mere innocence, or abstaining from harm; but as the exertion of our faculties in doing good.

Good | Harm | Innocence | Light | Virtue | Virtue |

Kahlil Gibran

Reason is light in darkness, as anger is darkness amidst light. Be wise - let Reason, not Impulse, be your guide.

Anger | Darkness | Impulse | Light | Reason | Wise |

Kahlil Gibran

Know your own true worth, and you shall not perish. Reason is your light and beacon of Truth. Reason is the source of Life. God has given you Knowledge, so that by its light you may not only worship him, but also see yourself in your weakness and strength.

God | Knowledge | Life | Life | Light | Reason | Strength | Truth | Weakness | Worship | Worth | God |

Loren Eiseley

When the human mind exists in the light of reason and no more than reason we may say with absolute certainty that Man and all that made him will being that instant gone.

Absolute | Light | Man | Mind | Reason | Will |

Loren Eiseley

In the end, science as we know it has two basic types of practitioners. One is the educated man who still has a controlled sense of wonder before the universal mystery, whether it hides in a snails eye or within the light that impinges on that delicate organ. The second kind of observer is the extreme reductionist who is so busy stripping things apart that the tremendous mystery has been reduced to a trifle, to intangibles not worth troubling one’s head about.

Extreme | Light | Man | Mystery | Science | Sense | Wonder | Worth |

Kahlil Gibran

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

Beauty | Heart | Light | Beauty |

Latin Proverbs

A fire can't throw a great light without burning something.

Light |

Joseph Campbell

Myths inspire the realization of the possibility of your perfection, the fullness of your strength, and the bringing of solar light into the world.

Light | Perfection | Strength | World |

Kahlil Gibran

The true light is that which emanates from within man, and reveals the secrets of the heart to the soul, making it happy and contented with life.

Happy | Heart | Life | Life | Light | Man | Soul |

Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

A light supper, a good night’s sleep, and a fine morning have often made a hero of the same man who, by indigestion, a restless night, and a rainy morning, would have proved a coward.

Good | Hero | Indigestion | Light | Man |

Lewis H. Lapham

To a thong of aging infants, the consumer society holds out the promise of eternal youth, of an enchanted mirror in which the customer can see himself reflected in the transfiguring light of immortality.

Eternal | Immortality | Light | Promise | Society | Youth | Society |

Marcel Marceau, born Marcel Mangel

Earthly life is an eternal miracle. In a moment of grace, we can grasp eternity in the palm of our hand. This is the gift given to creative individuals who can identify with the mysteries of life through art. It is a divine gift, this spirit of humanity. It is the fight for light over shadow.

Art | Eternal | Eternity | Grace | Humanity | Life | Life | Light | Spirit |

Meister Eckhart, formally Meister von Hochheim

Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time. And not only time but temporalities, not only temporal things but temporal affections; not only temporal affections but the very taint and smell of time.

God | Light | Time | God | Obstacle |

Michael Toms

We are at a crossroads; I am at a crossroads; you are at a crossroads. We are in the midst of an age-old story, that of the forces of light versus the forces of darkness. Will we choose the path of fear, anger, and revenge, or will we choose the path of nonviolence and hope?

Age | Anger | Darkness | Fear | Hope | Light | Revenge | Story | Will |

Meister Eckhart, formally Meister von Hochheim

Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.

Darkness | Light | Sorrow |

Moses ibn Ezra, fully Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as ha-Sallah "Writer of penitential prayers"

If you do not want to bear the light burden of education, you will have to bear the heavy burden of ignorance.

Education | Ignorance | Light | Will |

Moses ibn Ezra, fully Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as ha-Sallah "Writer of penitential prayers"

The body of man is light when the soul is therein. But when the soul is gone, it sinks heavily into the ground.

Body | Light | Man | Soul |