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

Italian Proverbs

Time and patience change the mulberry leaf to satin.

Italian Proverbs

Who has no children does not know what love is.

Hope | Order | Space |

Italian Proverbs

When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow.

Time |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.

Earth | Order | Will |

Italian Proverbs

Without temptation there is no victory.

Atheism | Impulse |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And here he was, a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go. It was an evil fate.

Freedom | God | Order | Soul | Struggle | Wants | God |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.

Order | Words |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

And lastly there is the oldest and deepest desire, the Great Escape: the Escape from Death. Fairy-stories provide many examples and modes of this.... Fairy-stories are made by men not by fairies. The Human-stories of the elves are doubtless full of the Escape from Deathlessness.

Beginning | Order |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

As we read the school reports on our children, we realize a sense of relief, that can rise to delight, that, thank Heaven, nobody is reporting in this fashion on us.

Ambiguity | Better | Compassion | Enemy | Failure | Injustice | Injustice | Justice | Little | Means | People | Religion | Sense | Tradition | Understanding | Work | Failure |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

A pathetic and shadowy medley of half-remembered traditions and mutilated beliefs. ~On the Church of England

Absurd | Life | Life | Think |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

But it does not seem that I can trust anyone, said Frodo. Sam looked at him unhappily. It all depends on what you want, put in Merry. You can trust us to stick with you through thick and thin to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo.

Destroy | Land | Life | Life | Nature | Order | People | Slavery |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

He led the way in under the huge branches of the trees. Old beyond guessing, they seemed. Great trailing beards of lichen hung from them, blowing and swaying in the breeze. Out of the shadows, the hobbits peeped, gazing back down the slope: little furtive figures that in the dim light looked like elf-children in the deeps of time peering out of the Wild Wood in wonder at their first Dawn.

Evolution | Future | Important | Learning | Science |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

He did not go much further, but sat down on the cold floor and gave himself up to complete miserableness, for a long while. He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home - for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that only made him miserabler.

Technology | Value |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Evidently we look so much alike that your desire to make an incurable dent in my hat must be excused.

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger; someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them...

Conversation | Energy | Life | Life | Order | Religion | Service | Understand |