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

Elihu Root

Gradually, everything that happens in the world is coming to be of interest everywhere in the world, and, gradually, thoughtful men and women everywhere are sitting in judgment upon the conduct of all nations.

Men |

Eleanor Brown, fully Nora Eleanor Louisa Hervey Brown

Not me, of course, as I am now officially a spinster librarian and must stay home with my cat and drink tea.

Bravery | Courage | Power | Strength | Thought | Thought |

Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen

When her head fell back in despair, while the man devoured her face horribly, one watched her forgotten arm hang down over his shoulder: the tips of the fingers twitched. What was she thinking about, what did women think about – then?

Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen

Lunch went through with strands of talk spun out fine till they dwindled to thin little patches of silence.

Fear |

Elihu Root

Nobody knows through how many thousands of years fighting men have made a place for themselves while the weak and peaceable have gone to the wall.

William Shakespeare

Shine comforts from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight From these that my poor company detest; And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.

Art | Beauty | Death | Enough | Evil | Father | Fortune | God | Good | Government | Heart | Rage | Shame | Tears | Vengeance | Virtue | Virtue | Government | Art | Beauty | God |

William Shakespeare

She shall watch all night: and if she chance to nod I'll rail and brawl and with the clamour keep her still awake. This is the way to kill a wife with kindness.

William Shakespeare

Rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, which gives men stomach to digest his words, with better appetite.

Action | Cause | Grace | Little | World | Blessed |

William Shakespeare

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Boys | Day | Glory | Good | Greatness | Hate | Heart | Hope | Little | Man | Mercy | Pride | Smile | Old |

William Shakespeare

ROSENCRANTZ: My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. HAMLET: The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing. GUILDENSTERN: A thing my lord? HAMLET: Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after!

Better |

William Shakespeare

So on the tip of his subduing tongue all kinds of arguments and question deep, all replication prompt and reason strong, for his advantage still did wake and sleep. To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep, he had the dialect and different skill, catching all passions in his craft of will; . . .

Prosperity |

William Shakespeare

Society is no comfort to one not sociable.

Prosperity | Will | Witness |

William Shakespeare

So bees with smoke and doves with noisome stench Are from their hives and houses driven away. They called us, for our fierceness, English dogs; Now, like to whelps, we crying run away.

Age | Better | Day | Peace | Wealth | Will | World |

William Shakespeare

Silence is not a language, it’s a weapon to make your dear one to feel.

Need | Time |

William Shakespeare

Since you know you cannot see yourself so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself that of yourself which yet you know not of.

Blush | Doubt | History | Honor | Innocence | Life | Life | Mother | Past | Tyranny | Will |

William Shakespeare

Shall we play the wantons with our woes, and make some pretty match with shedding tears?

Space |

Elizabeth Gilbert

Meditation vs. Prayer = Listening vs. Talking

Blame | Irony | Looks | Object |

Elizabeth Gilbert

My restlessness makes me a far better day-to-day traveler than he will ever be. I am infinitely curious and almost infinitely patient with mishaps, discomforts, and minor disasters. So I can go anywhere on the planet—that’s not a problem. The problem is that I just can’t live anywhere on the planet.

Family | Man | Marriage | Mother | Peace |

Elizabeth Gilbert

I wondered why have I been chasing happiness my whole life when bliss was here the entire time?

Enough | Wonder |

Elizabeth Gilbert

I watched them, thinking that little girls who make their mothers live grow up to be such powerful women.

Addiction | Blame | Good | Irony | Looks | Love | Object | Obsession | Soul | Suffering |