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

Tom Robbins, fully Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins

Maybe most people were fundamentally contradictory. The real people at any rate.

Aid | Honor | Love | Security | Words |

William Shakespeare

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason Like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh, That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy. Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Ophelia at III, i)

Dread | Little | Lord | Love | Men | Mortal | Neglect | Will | Woman |

William Shakespeare

As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.

Security |

William Shakespeare

And you, enchantment, Worthy enough a herdsman--yea, him too, That makes himself, but for our honor therein, Unworthy thee-if ever henceforth thou These rural latches to his entrance open, Or hoop his body more with thy embraces, I will devise a death as cruel for thee As thou art tender to't. Winter’s Tale, Act iv, Scene 4

Security |

William Godwin

Every man has a certain sphere of discretion, which he has a right to expect shall not be infringed by his neighbors. This right flows from the very nature of man. First, all men are fallible: no man can be justified in setting up his judgment as a standard for others. We have no infallible judge of controversies; each man in his own apprehension is right in his decisions; and we can find no satisfactory mode of adjusting their jarring pretensions. If everyone be desirous of imposing his sense upon others, it will at last come to be a controversy, not of reason, but of force. Secondly, even if we had an in fallible criterion, nothing would be gained, unless it were by all men recognized as such. If I were secured against the possibility of mistake, mischief and not good would accrue, from imposing my infallible truths upon my neighbor, and requiring his submission independently of any conviction I could produce in his understanding. Man is a being who can never be an object of just approbation, any further than he is independent. He must consult his own reason, draw his own conclusions and conscientiously conform himself to his ideas of propriety. Without this, he will be neither active, nor considerate, nor resolute, nor generous.

Appearance | Assertion | Darkness | Destroy | Lesson | Means | Neglect | Nothing | Public | Reason | Security |

Chögyam Trungpa, fully Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

When you see ordinary situations with extraordinary insight it is like discovering a jewel in rubbish. If work becomes part of your spiritual practice, then your regular, daily problems cease to be only problems and become a source of inspiration. Nothing is rejected as ordinary and nothing is taken as being particularly sacred, but all the substance and material available in life-situations is used.

Security | Struggle |

William James

Act in earnest and you will become earnest in all you do.

Character | Circumstances | Security | Will | Woman |

William Law

Why all this strife and zeal about opinions? Death and life go on their own way, carry on their own work, and stay for no opinions... What a delusion it is therefore to grow gray-headed in balancing ancient and modern opinions; to waste the precious uncertain fire of life in critical zeal and verbal animosities; when nothing but the kindling of our working will into a faith that overcometh the world, into a steadfast hope, and ever-burning love and desire of the divine life, can hinder us from falling into eternal death.

Enough | God | Good | Neglect | Religion | Taste | Terror | God |

William James

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

Change | Discovery | Revolution | Discovery |

William McKinley

I have never been in doubt since I was old enough to think intelligently that I would someday be made President.

Grief | Heart | Inquiry | Security | Sorrow |

Drew Curtis

Mass Media will respond that media issues are of great importance because they impact the public trust in news organizations. This ignores the fact that most people already believe Mass Media either makes stuff up, is biased one way or the other, or constantly gets information wrong. Finding out that journalists sometimes invent stories just confirms their preexisting viewpoint.

Innovation | Security | Sense | Survival | Thinking | Will | Loss |

William Shakespeare

O heaven, that such companions thou 'ldst unfold, and put in every honest hand a whip to lash the rascals naked through the world.

Revolution |

William Shakespeare

O God! that one might read the book of fate.

Revolution |

Sejong the Great, aka King Sejong, family name Yi, given name Do NULL

Although those of superior ranks are wiser than their subordinates and should be able to make the right decisions, the subordinates must not hesitate to correct their superiors, if they feel with certainty that the latter’s decisions are wrong.

Neglect | Wise |

Edward Scribner Ames

Nothing yet proves that continued progress is inevitable, but that it is possible no one but an extreme skeptic or pessimist can doubt.

Bible | Example | Intelligence | Life | Life | Reflection | Rest | Revelation | Security | Words | Bible |

Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen

The day was featureless, a stock pattern day of late summer, blandly insensitive to their imprints. The yellow sun – slanting in under the blinds on full bosomed silver, hands balancing Worcester, dogs poking up wistfully from under the cloth – seemed old, used, filtering from the surplus of some happy fulfillment; while, unapproachably elsewhere, something went by without them.

Neglect |