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

Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses' heads were toward eternity.

Angels | Little | Mortal |

Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

It was not death, for I stood up, and all the dead lie down; it was not night, for all the bells put out their tongues, for noon. It was not frost, for on my flesh I felt siroccos crawl, nor fire, for just my marble feet could keep a chancel cool. And yet it tasted like them all; the figures I have seen set orderly, for burial, reminded me of mine, as if my life were shaven and fitted to a frame, and could not breathe without a key; and I was like midnight, some, when everything that ticked has stopped, and space stares, all around, or grisly frosts, first autumn morns, repeal the beating ground. But most like chaos,--stopless, cool, without a chance or spar,-- or even a report of land to justify despair.

Eternity | Mortal | Noise | Quiet | World |

Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

Then I will not repine knowing that bird of mine though flown shall in a distant tree bright melody for me return.

Day | Death | Earth | Heaven |

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

I went about my house hold duties, convinced that the Grange had but one sensible soul in its walls, and that lodged in my body.

Angels | Business | Heart | Heaven | Love | Man | Thought | Will | Business | Thought |

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

He'll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to loved or hated again.

Angels | Business | Heart | Love | Man | Thought | Will | Business | Thought |

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

But there's this difference: one is gold put to the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver.

Bible | Man | Bible | Old |

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

I cried so much for him as for her, sometimes we have compassion for creatures that do not have this feeling not for themselves nor for others.

Better | Care | Love | Nothing |

Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

Who has not found the heaven below will fail of it above. God's residence is next to mine, His furniture is love.

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

Look on the grave where thou must sleep thy last, and strongest foe; it is endurance not to weep, if that repose seem woe.

Grief |

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

I pray one prayer—I repeat it till my tongue stiffens—Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you—haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!

Better | Love |

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

You have been compelled to cultivate your reflective faculties for want of occasions for frittering away your life on silly trifles.

Angels | Devil | Heaven | Love | Time |

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

Though earth and man were gone, and suns and universes ceased to be, and Thou wert left alone, every existence would exist in Thee.

Angels | Business | Heart | Heaven | Love | Man | Thought | Will | Work | Business | Thought |

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

The world is for me a hideous collection of memorabilia telling me she lived and I have lost her.

Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon.

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

I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.

Earth | Soul | Spirit |

English Proverbs

Repentance is good, but innocence is better.

Erma Bombeck, fully Erma Louise Bombeck, born Erma Fiste

In two decades I've lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.

Day | Men |

Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

I learned to understand Cézanne much better and to see truly how he made landscapes when I was hungry. I used to wonder if he were hungry too when he painted; but I thought possibly it was only that he had forgotten to eat. It was one of those unsound but illuminating thoughts you have when you have been sleepless or hungry. Later I thought Cézanne was probably hungry in a different way.

Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

I do not follow you. Many times I do not follow myself with pleasure.

Good | Trouble |

Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.