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

Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

The important thing is not the finding, it is the seeking, it is the devotion with which one spins the wheel of prayer and scripture, discovering the truth little by little. If this machine gave you the truth immediately, you would not recognize it.

Awareness | Search | Words | Awareness |

Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

How does one hate a country, or love one? Tibe talks about it; I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one mustn't make a virtue of it, or a profession... Insofar as I love life, I love the hills of the Domain of Estre, but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.

Death | Love | Nature | Understand |

Václav Havel

The role of the writer is not simply to arrange Being according to his own lights; he must also serve as a medium to Being and remain open to its often unfathomable dictates. This is the only way the work can transcend its creator and radiate its meaning further than the author himself can see or perceive.

Doubt | Integration | Man | Nature | Reality | Relationship | Science | World |

Václav Havel

Vision is not enough – it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.

Body | Events | Science | Search | Space | Unique | Universe |

Valmiki NULL

If a person is gifting away his elephant but his heart is set on the rope used for tying the elephant, of what use is his attachment to the rope when he is giving away the elephant itself.

Nature | People | Friendship |

Vannevar Bush

Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic and it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.

Nature | Thinking | Time |

Václav Havel

The real test of a man is not how well he plays the role he has invented for himself, but how well he plays the role that destiny assigned to him.

Force | Man | Meaning | Nature |

Vannevar Bush

The advanced arithmetical machines of the future will be electrical in nature, and they will perform at 100 times present speeds, or more.

Action | Duty | Need | Neglect | Reason | Search |

Vannevar Bush

The scene changes but the aspirations of men of good will persist.

Body | Knowledge | Men | Nature | Responsibility | Understand |

Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.

Equality | Law | Nature | Nothing |

Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

It is not true that men are better in poverty than in wealth.

Equality | Law | Nature |

Tryon Edwards

Temperance is to the body what religion is to the soul, the foundation and source of health and strength and peace.

Little | Nature | Quiet |

Hung Tzu-ch'eng, also Hong Zicheng or Hóng Zìchéng, born Hong Yingming

If you are an amiable person you treat yourself well, and you also treat others well. You are amiable about everything everywhere. If you are a casual person, you are indifferent about yourself, and you also treat others with indifference. You are casual about everything everywhere. It follows that, as a noble person, in daily life you are prudent, neither excessively and dazzlingly amiable nor excessively dry and indifferent.

Credit | Life | Life | Nature | Yielding |

Tryon Edwards

From the beginning of our history the country has been afflicted with compromise. It is by compromise that human rights have been abandoned.

Duty | Nature | Truth |

Trofim Lysenko, fully Trofim Denisovich Lysenko

Darwinism as presented by Darwin contradicted idealistic philosophy, and this contradiction grew deeper with the development of its materialist teaching.

Nature |

Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

Then the music strikes up, and freely they pardon the offences and faults of the enemy, and after the victories they are kind to them, if it has been decreed that they should destroy the walls of the enemy's city and take their lives.

Action | Boys | Change | Destroy | Hunger | Kill | Nature | People | Science | Thinking | Old |

Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun

The more you study Buddhism, the more you should understand. You shouldn't become more confused. Recognize the truth and open up your "mine of wisdom."

Aspiration | Divinity | Dynamic | Good | Honor | Nature | Practice | Aspiration |

Tryon Edwards

The first impulse of conscience is apt to be right; the first impulse of appetite or passion is generally wrong.-We should be faithful to the former, but suspicious of the latter.

Choice | Evil | Nature | Power |

Tripitaka or Tipitaka NULL

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.

Love | Search | Universe |