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

Tibetan Proverbs

As to friends we like the old; As to clothes we like the new.

Todd Rundgren, fully Todd Harry Rundgren

People who have memorized your songs-how can you not love them?

Little |

Tom Robbins, fully Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins

It's hard to say who's a greater threat to the world, an ambitious CEO with a big ad budget or a crafty cleric with an obsolete Bible verse.

Think |

William Shakespeare

Ah! what a sign it is of evil life, when death's approach is seen so terrible!

Heart | Woman |

William Shakespeare

A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom and ever three parts coward.

William Shakespeare

And that same dew, which some time on the buds was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, stood now within the pretty floweret's eyes, like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.

Earth | Good |

William Shakespeare

And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of. Julius Caeasar, Act I, Scene 2

Kill | Will | Think |

William Shakespeare

And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail. Unwilling to school. As you Like It, Act ii, Scene 7

Guilty |

William Shakespeare

And why not death, rather than living torment? To die is to be banish'd from myself; and Silvia is myself: banish'd from her, is self from self: a deadly banishment! What light is light, if Silvia be not seen? What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by? Unless it be to think that she is by, and feed upon the shadow of perfection. Except I be by Silvia in the night, there is no music in the nightingale; unless I look on Silvia in the day, there is no day for me to look upon; she is my essence; and I leave to be, if I be not by her fair influence foster'd, illumined, cherish'd, kept alive. I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom: tarry I here, I but attend on death; but, fly I hence, I fly away from life. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii, Scene 1

Extreme | Little | Will |

William Shakespeare

And it is very much lamented, Brutus, that you have no such mirrors as will turn your hidden worthiness into your eye.

Ends |

William Shakespeare

But, orderly to end where I begun, our wills and fates do so contrary run that our devices still are overthrown; our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. Hamlet, Act iii, Scene 2

Happiness |

William Shakespeare

Be able for thine enemy Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend, Under thy own life's key.

Hate | Kill | Man | Men |

William Shakespeare

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch; Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth; Between two blades, which bears the better temper; Between two horses, which doth bear him best; Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye,— I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment; But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw. King Henry VI. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Genius | Little | Mortal | Nature |

William Shakespeare

But old folks—many feign as they were dead, unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.

Happiness |

William Shakespeare

BENEDICK: I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none. BEATRICE: A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. Much Ado about Nothing, Act I, Scene 6

God | Happy | Heart | Love | Nothing | Protest | Will | World | God | Forgive |

William Shakespeare

Come on, poor babe, some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens to be thy nurses. Wolves and bears, they say, casting their savageness aside, have done like offices of pity.

Common Sense | Sense | Study | Will |

William Godwin

In a well-written book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such companions without attaining some resemblance to them.

Mind |

Charles Kingsley

Let us ask ourselves seriously and honestly, “What do I believe after all? What sort of manner of man am I after all? What sort of show should I make after all, if the people round me knew my heart and all my secret thoughts? What sort of show, then, do I already make in the sight of Almighty God, who sees every man exactly as he is?”

Nothing | World | Worth | Value |

William Godwin

If he who employs coercion against me could mold me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.

Brother Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, born Nicolas Herman, aka Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection or

That all things are possible to him who believes; that they are less difficult for him that hopes; that they are more easy to him that loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.