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

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. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

But some of us are beginning to pull well away, in our irritation, from... the exquisite tasters, the vintage snobs, the three-star Michelin gourmets. There is, we feel, a decent area somewhere between boiled carrots and Beluga caviar, sour plonk and Chateau Lafitte, where we can take care of our gullets and bellies without worshipping them.

Absolute | Compassion | Equity | Heart | Honor | Suffering | Work | World |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

I am quite sure that our views on evolution would be very different had biologists studied genetics and natural selection before and not after most of them were convinced that evolution had occurred.

Time | Worry | Wrong | Think |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

Life implies constant activity, and the vital principle was accordingly regarded as something essentially active, constantly controlling and therefore interfering with physical tendencies towards disintegration of organic structure, and building up new organic structure in the process of nutrition and reproduction.

Body | Death | Evidence | Life | Life | Time |

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

And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair! She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken; a slender Elf woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

Government | Rights | Security | Government | Guilty |

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

And suddenly first one and then another began to sing as they played, deep-throated singing of the dwarves in the deep places of their ancient homes; and this is like a fragment of their song, if it can be like their song without their music... As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. He looked out of the window. The stars were out in a dark sky above the trees. He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining in dark caverns. Suddenly in the wood beyond The Water a flame leapt up - probably somebody lighting a wood-fire-and he thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames. He shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill, again. He got up trembling.

Fighting | Ignorance | Money | People | Time |

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

At last Frodo spoke with hesitation. 'I believed that you were a friend before the letter came,' he said, 'or at least I wished to. You have frightened me several times tonight, but never in the way the servants of the Enemy would, or so I imagine. I think one of his spies would - well, seem fairer and feel fouler, if you understand

Success |

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

But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.

Little | Reality | Slavery | Old Testament | Old | Think | Understand | Value |

Italian Proverbs

You might typically get something good out of an overall faulty book, especially a non-fictional one, such as sound advice or anecdotes to tell others.

Religion | Think |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

If we openly declare what is wrong with us, what is our deepest need, then perhaps the death and despair will by degrees disappear.

Choice | Equality | Suspicion | Work |

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

Aule has might little less than Ulmo. His lordship is over all the substances of which Arda is made. In the beginning he wrought much in fellowship with Manwe and Ulmo; and the fashioning of all lands was his labor. He is a smith and a master of all crafts, and he delights in works of skill, however small, as much as in the mighty building of old. His are the gems that lie deep in the Earth and the gold that is fair in the hand, no less than the walls of the mountains and the basins of the sea. The Noldor learned most of him, and he was ever their friend. Melkor was jealous of him, for Aule was most like himself in thought and in powers; and there was long strife between them, in which Melkor ever marred or undid the works of Aule, and Aule grew weary in repairing the tumults and disorders of Melkor. Both, also, desired to make things of their own that should be new and unthought of by others, and delighted in the praise of their skill. But Aule remained faithful to Eru and submitted all that he did to his will; and he did not envy the works of others, but sought and gave counsel. Whereas Melkor spent his spirit in envy and hate, until at last he could make nothing save in mockery of the thought of others, and all their works he destroyed if he could.

Business | Business |

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

At length the Lady Galadriel released them from her eyes, and she smiled. ?Do not let your hearts be troubled,? she said. ?Tonight you shall sleep in peace.? Then they sighed and felt suddenly weary, as those who have been questioned long and deeply, though no words had been spoken openly.

Effort | Fighting | Organization | People | Public | Rights | Slavery | Child |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.

Time |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

Capitalism, though it may not always give the scientific worker a living wage, will always protect him, as being one of the geese which produce golden eggs for its table.

Beginning | Loneliness | Lying | People | Time | Work |

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

Beautiful she is, sir! Lovely! Sometimes Luke a great tree in flower, sometimes like a white daffadowdilly, small and slender like. Hard as di'monds, soft as moonlight. Warm as sunlight, cold as frost in the stars. Proud and far-off as a snow-mountain, and as merry as any lass I ever saw with daisies in her hair in springtime.

Action | Global | Present | Property | Sense | System | Thought | Will | Thought |

J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

The future will be no primrose path. It will have its own problems. Some will be the secular problems of the past, giant flowers of evil blossoming at last to their own destruction. Others will be wholly new.

Body | Cost | Effort | Time | Following |

Italian Proverbs

Women are wise impromptu, fools on reflection.

Ecstasy | Eternity | Experience | Golden Rule | Rule | Speculation | Time | World | Golden Rule |

Italian Proverbs

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Age | Important | Mistake | Myth | Question | Regard | Science |

Italian Proverbs

Your former enemies might cunningly take revenge on you just out of spite. Trust not a reconciled enemy more than an open foe.