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

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

People who think they can live mean penance others lie to ourselves, but those who think other people cannot live without him be wrong again.

Enough | Envy | Merit | Pride | Think |

Dugald Stewart

Inclination is another word with which will is frequently confounded. Thus, when the apothecary says, in Romeo and Juliet,— “My poverty, but not my will, consents; Take this and drink it off; the work is done.” the word will is plainly used as synonymous with inclination; not in the strict logical sense, as the immediate antecedent of action. It is with the same latitude that the word is used in common conversation, when we think of doing a thing which duty prescribes, against one’s own will; or when we speak of doing a thing willingly or unwillingly.

Acquaintance | Attainment | Books | Correctness | Grace | Language | Lying | Men | Merit | Purity | Reading | Style | Taste | Writing |

William Shakespeare

O that estates, degrees, and offices Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!

Merit |

William Shakespeare

Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that.

Honor | Merit |

Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya

Let us control ourselves and not be resentful when others disagree with us, for all men have hearts and each heart has its own leanings. The right of others is our wrong, and our right is their wrong. We are not unquestionably sages, nor are they unquestionably fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can anyone lay down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong? For we are all wise sometimes and foolish at others. Therefore, though others give way to anger, let us on the contrary dread our own faults, and though we may think we alone are in the right, let us follow the majority and act like them.

Business | Merit | Public | Punishment | Reward | Business |

Padmasambhava, literally "Lotus-Born",aka "Second Buddha", better known as Guru Rinpoche (lit. "Precious Guru") or Lopon Rinpoche NULL

When the degenerate age of this aeon arrives, people are their own deceivers, their own bad counsel, the makers of their own stupidity, lying to a fooling themselves. How sad that these people have human forms but possess no more sense than an ox!

Giving | Merit | Practice |

Padmasambhava, literally "Lotus-Born",aka "Second Buddha", better known as Guru Rinpoche (lit. "Precious Guru") or Lopon Rinpoche NULL

Unstained by objective clinging, unspoilt by the grasping mind, sustaining the naked and empty awareness is the wisdom mind of all buddhas! Do not investigate phenomena; investigate the mind. If you investigate the mind, you’ll know the one thing which resolves all. If you don’t investigate the mind, you can know everything but be forever stuck on one.

Merit | Will |

William Shakespeare

So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition-- Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helena at III, ii)

Man | Merit | Truth | Virtue | Virtue | Wrong |

Emil M. Cioran

My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers.

Merit |

Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. Espousing the former is not defending the latter.

Merit | Punishment |

Émile Souvestre

Make himself a name: he becomes public .property

Duty | Merit |

Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell

But when the days of golden dreams had perished, and even Despair was powerless to destroy; then did I learn how existence could be cherished, strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy.

Gold | Merit | Nothing | Service |

Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell

Doubtless Catherine marked the difference between her friends, as one came in and the other went out. The contrast resembled what you see in exchanging a bleak, hilly, coal country for a beautiful fertile valley; and his voice and greeting were as opposite as his aspect.

Gold | Merit | Nothing | Service | Think |

Emma Goldman

One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; the extreme thing is generally the true thing.

Inevitable | Inferiority | Merit | Position | Question | Right | Woman |

Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

There is natural ignorance and there is artificial ignorance. I should say at the present moment the artificial ignorance is about eighty-five per cent.

Man | Merit | Tragedy | Work |