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

Lyall Watson

There seems to be direct link between truly creative intelligence and the ability to dilute consciousness, to cut mental corners and practice unusual, lateral thinking in what amounts almost to a state of trance. All the most profound insights seem to flow from breaches in the barrier between waking thought, which tends to be conservative, and dream logic, which is essential liberal.

Ability | Consciousness | Intelligence | Logic | Practice | Thinking | Thought | Wisdom |

Carl Zuckmayer

Tact is the great ability to see other people as they think you see them.

Ability | People | Tact | Wisdom | Think |

Carol Adrienne

A highly evolved use of intuition is being able to find meaning in symbols and synchronicities. The more we focus on finding meaning for ourselves in “chance occurrences,” the more we increase our intuitive power. Deepening our connection to our current surrounding increases our ability to follow the guidance of our inner purpose.

Ability | Chance | Focus | Guidance | Intuition | Meaning | Power | Purpose | Purpose | Guidance |

Carol Adrienne

Purpose is about developing relationships. Purpose is about bringing attention and intention into the present moment, moving ahead with new ideas, giving and receiving support, volunteering, mentoring, listening to the imagination and intuition, communicating, taking action based on inner direction and hints from the external, being adaptable, taking responsibility and ending the victim stance forever surrendering to the divine will and working with the lessons developing fluidity, tolerance, compassion, and the ability to love.

Ability | Action | Attention | Compassion | Giving | Ideas | Imagination | Intention | Intuition | Listening | Love | Present | Purpose | Purpose | Responsibility | Will | Victim |

Peter R. Breggin

Charisma is the ability to inspire followers with devotion and enthusiasm to a cause. It encourages disciples rather than independent persons. It is a way of investing oneself with authority over other rather than vesting others with authority over themselves.

Ability | Authority | Cause | Charisma | Devotion | Enthusiasm |

Tom Butler-Bowdon

Refining your ability to think should be your investment priority; it always provides the best returns.

Ability | Think |

Robert E. Carter, fully Robert Edgar Carter

The ability to become bamboo is a metaphor for reaching beyond the perceptual, intellectual, and feeling habits, expectations, and assumptions of your own psyche and traditions in order to allow the embracing and the understanding of those of another. In actually becoming bamboo it is essential to listen to another with an open mind and heart, and thereby to embrace what you were previously unwilling or unable genuinely to encounter.

Ability | Heart | Mind | Order | Understanding |

Winston Churchill, fully Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

When asked what are the desirable qualifications for any young person who wishes to become a politician, Churchill replied: It is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

Ability | Tomorrow | Wishes |

T. Berry Brazelton, fully Thomas Berry Brazelton

Reading to children at night, responding to their smiles, with a smile, returning their vocalizations with one of your own, touching them, holding them – all of these further a child’s brain development and future potential, even in the earliest months. Research demonstrates that the early responsiveness of caring parents sets the tone for future self-esteem, trust, problem solving, ability to communicate successfully and motivation for future learning.

Ability | Children | Esteem | Future | Learning | Parents | Reading | Research | Self | Self-esteem | Smile | Trust |

Norman F. Dixon

Those very characteristics which are demanded by war – the ability to tolerate uncertainty, spontaneity of thought and action, having a mind open to the receipt of novel, and perhaps threatening information – are the antitheses of those possessed by people attracted to the controls, and orderliness, of militarism.

Ability | Action | Mind | Orderliness | People | Thought | Uncertainty | War | Thought |

Albert E Cliffe

Now whether the difficulty is real or whether it is imaginary, the results are the same, you become whatever you think. If God is with you, how can you possibly feel inferior to anyone? You have equal access to all the good that comes from God. You can demonstrate your faith in His ability to give it to you by living His life. So change your thought patterns right now. Make up your mind to beat this feeling by faith in God, and you will. He can who thinks he can!

Ability | Change | Difficulty | Faith | God | Good | Life | Life | Mind | Right | Thought | Will | God | Thought |

Albert E Cliffe

Your subconscious mind produces in your daily life evidence of the thoughts you send back to it. The constant repetition of fear, anxiety and worry thoughts will bring upon you the same thing multiplied many times over, but the constant practice of positive thinking, making affirmations hour by hour that God is now healing your fears and worries, will bring magnificent results... You have the ability for successful living. You have the tools. The power you use is faith and the tools are your thoughts and ideas.

Ability | Anxiety | Anxiety | Evidence | Faith | Fear | God | Ideas | Life | Life | Mind | Power | Practice | Thinking | Will | Worry | God |

James Fenimore Cooper

The ability to discriminate between that which is true and that which is false is one of the last attainments of the human mind.

Ability | Mind |

Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm

Freedom, the ability to preserve one’s integrity against power, is the basic condition for morality.

Ability | Freedom | Integrity | Morality | Power |

Robbie Gass

Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it.

Ability | Wisdom |

D. W. Harding, fully Denys Clement Wyatt Harding

A necessary quality for the attainment of individuality is the ability to tolerate some degree of loneliness in the sense of independent adherence to values that those around you will not support.

Ability | Attainment | Individuality | Loneliness | Sense | Will |