This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Thus the faery tradition inspires us, teaches us, that there are other ways to relate, other ways of living and dying. And in Irish tradition we learn that such ways are about our intimate relationship to the land and sea, the two powers of this world that shape us, nourish us, and enable all that we are. What is true of Ireland is true of all lands; but Ireland demonstrates this truth so amply for Westerners, with her potent faery tradition." - R. J. Stewart, fully Robert John Stewart
"And in the future the Holy One, blessed be He, will renew the entire world through the land of Israel , for then it will be revealed that God created everything. The essential holiness of the land of Israel lies in the fact that His providence is there all the time: "Constantly the eyes of HaShem your God are upon it from the beginning of the year until the end of the year" (Deuteronomy 11:12 ) . And in time to come, when He renews the entire world through the land of Israel , the entire world will be governed through providence alone, just like the land of Israel . Nature will then be totally nullified and the world will be governed through providence and wonders alone, not according to nature." - Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav or Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Nachman from Uman NULL
"When the world is renewed in the future, it will be governed through wonders and providence alone in a way that transcends nature. For the future renewal of the world will come about through the land of Israel, which in its very essence depends on "the power of His works" (Psalms 111:6; see Rashi on Genesis 1:1) - namely, knowing that God created the world." - Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav or Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Nachman from Uman NULL
"When we clap our hands during prayer it awakens the 28 letters that the world was created with which parallel the 28 joints in the hands. Through this we have power to purify the air of the nations, to dispel the impure air and replace it with the pure air of the Land of Israel." - Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav or Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Nachman from Uman NULL
"You should know. The Torah which is enclothed within the concealment within a concealment is a very high Torah; the secrets of the Torah. Since it needs to enclothe itself in these low places, by those who have sinned a lot until Hashem became concealed from them in a concealment within a concealment, Hashem decided not to place their simple Torah, in order that the evil should not be able to draw strength from there too much, which will cause much defect. Therefore He concealed and enclothed within their specifically very high Torah, the secrets of Torah, which is Hashems Torah itself. This is as it says with regards to Egypt (Shemot 12) I will pass through the land of Egypt, I and not an angel, I and not a messenger, I, Hashem and no other. For in the land of Egypt, the place of much evil, specifically there, Hashem himself is hidden and enclothed, that is, Hashem" - Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav or Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Nachman from Uman NULL
"Ecological Footprint is the land (and water) area that would be required to support a defined human population and material standard indefinitely. " - William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel
"EFA [Ecological Footprint Analysis] starts from a series of simple premises: Human beings are integral components of the ecosystems that sustain us. We can therefore best assess ecological sustainability using biophysical data. Most human impacts on ecosystems are associated with energy and material extraction and consumption. These energy and material flows can be converted to corresponding productive or assimilative ecosystems areas. There is a measurable, finite area of productive land and water ecosystems on Earth. Every human population imposes an ‘ecological footprint’ on Earth equivalent to the amount of the planet’s productive capacity required to supply that population with resources and waste assimilation services. We therefore formally define the ecological footprint of a specified population as the area of land and water ecosystems required on a continuous basis to produce the resources that the population consumes, and to assimilate (some of) the wastes that the population produces, wherever on Earth the relevant land/water may be located." - William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel
"The area of a population’s theoretical eco-footprint depends on four factors: the population size, the average material standard of living, the average productivity of land/water ecosystems, and the efficiency of resource harvesting, processing, and use. Regardless of the relative importance of these factors and how they interact, every population has an ecological footprint and the productive land and water captured by EFA represents much of the ‘natural capital’ (productive natural resource base) required to meet that study population’s consumptive demands. It is important to recognize that population eco-footprints constitute mutually exclusive appropriations of productive capacity. The biocapacity used by one population is not available for use by another. All human populations are competing for the available productive capacity of Earth." - William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel
"The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life. Each time that I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings... There is a common thread that links these scenes and memories -- the spectacle of life in all its varied manifestations as it has appeared, evolved, and sometimes died out. Underlying the beauty of the spectacle there is meaning and significance. It is the elusiveness of that meaning that haunts us, that sends us again and again into the natural world where the key to the riddle is hidden. It sends us back to the edge of the sea, where the drama of life played its first scene on earth and perhaps even its prelude; where the forces of evolution are at work today, as they have been since the appearance of what we know as life; and where the spectacle of living creatures faced by the cosmic realities of their world is crystal clear." - Rachel Carson, fully Rachel Louise Carson
"You are nearing the land that is life; you will recognize it by its seriousness." - Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke
"They can laugh, but they can't deny us. They can curse and kill us, but they can't destroy us. This land is ours because we come out of it, we bled in it, our tears watered it, we fertilized it with our dead. So the more of us they destroy, the more it becomes filled with the spirit of our redemption." - Ralph Ellison, fully Ralph Waldo Ellison
"God laughs on two occasions. He laughs when two brothers divide land between them. They put a string across the land and say to each other, 'This side is mine, and that side is yours. God laughs and says to Himself, 'Why, this whole universe is Mine; and about a little clod they say, This side is mine, and that side is yours!' God laughs again when the physician says to the mother weeping bitterly because of her child's desperate illness: 'Don't be afraid, mother. I shall cure your child.' The physician does not know that no one can save the child if God wills that he should die" - Ramakrishna, aka Ramakrishna Paramhamsa or Sri Ramakrishna, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay NULL
"One can easily realize God if one is free from guile. Spiritual instruction produces quick results in a guileless heart. Such a heart is like well cultivated land from which all the stones have been removed. No sooner is the seed sown than it germinates. The fruit also appears quickly." - Ramakrishna, aka Ramakrishna Paramhamsa or Sri Ramakrishna, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay NULL
"One cannot attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. Water does not stay on the top of a mound; but into low land it flows in torrents from all sides." - Ramakrishna, aka Ramakrishna Paramhamsa or Sri Ramakrishna, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay NULL
"I will make the land [so] desolate- This is [actually] a kindly measure for Israel, for their enemies will not find any satisfaction in their land, for it will be desolate of its inhabitants." - Rashi, born Shlomo ben Yitzchok, aka Salomon Isaacides, Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki NULL
"So is the Land of Israel: It cannot sustain sinners." - Rashi, born Shlomo ben Yitzchok, aka Salomon Isaacides, Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki NULL
"The Torah begins with an account of the Creation so that if there ever comes a time when the nations of the world accuse the Jewish people of having stolen the Land of Israel, the Jews can respond: " - Rashi, born Shlomo ben Yitzchok, aka Salomon Isaacides, Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki NULL
"The Great Spirit raised both the white man and the Indian. I think he raised the Indian first. He raised me in this land, it belongs to me. The white man was raised over the great waters, and his land is over there." - Red Cloud, fully Maȟpíya Lúta in Lakota NULL
"Brother: you say you have not come to get our land or our money, but to enlighten our minds. I will now tell you that I have been at your meetings, and saw you collecting money from the meeting. I cannot tell what this money was intended for, but suppose it was for your minister, and if we should conform to your way of thinking, perhaps you may want some from us." - Red Jacket, aka Sagoyewatha NULL
"Importantly, these early philosophers had some inkling of natural limits and anticipated an eventual end to economic growth. The essential ingredients of the economy were understood to consist of land, labor, and capital. There was on Earth only so much land (which in these theorists" - Richard Heinberg
"As the tide of white domination of the land mass of Asia and Africa recedes, there lies exposed to view a procession of shattered cultures, disintegrated societies, and a writhing sweep of more aggressive, irrational religion than the world has known for centuries." - Richard Wright, fully Richard Nathaniel Wright
"I once had a dispute with a group of Swedish professors at the University of Uppsala as to which country, Sweden or Canada, was the dullest in the world. It was a draw; they claimed superiority because of their long history, and I claimed it because of Canada's immense land mass, which gives us space for tremendous expansion, even of such things as dullness." - Robertson Davies
"If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we must stand fast a little --even at the risk of being heroes." - Robert Oxton Bolt
"I will never submit to fight beneath that banner with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." - Robert Byrd, fully Robert Carlyle Byrd
"The land was ours before we were the lands. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were Englands, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become. " - Robert Frost
"It's good the great green earth to roam, Where sights of awe the soul inspire; But oh, it's best, the coming home, The crackle of one's own hearth-fire! You've hob-nobbed with the solemn Past; You've seen the pageantry of kings; Yet oh, how sweet to gain at last The peace and rest of Little Things! Perhaps you're counted with the Great; You strain and strive with mighty men; Your hand is on the helm of State; Colossus-like you stride . . . and then There comes a pause, a shining hour, A dog that leaps, a hand that clings: O Titan, turn from pomp and power; Give all your heart to Little Things. Go couch you childwise in the grass, Believing it's some jungle strange, Where mighty monsters peer and pass, Where beetles roam and spiders range. 'Mid gloom and gleam of leaf and blade, What dragons rasp their painted wings! O magic world of shine and shade! O beauty land of Little Things! I sometimes wonder, after all, Amid this tangled web of fate, If what is great may not be small, And what is small may not be great. So wondering I go my way, Yet in my heart contentment sings . . . O may I ever see, I pray, God's grace and love in Little Things. So give to me, I only beg, A little roof to call my own, A little cider in the keg, A little meat upon the bone; A little garden by the sea, A little boat that dips and swings . . . Take wealth, take fame, but leave to me, O Lord of Life, just Little Things." - Robert Service, fully Robert William Service
"It's coming soon and soon, mother, it's nearer every day, When only men who work and sweat will have a word to say; When all who earn their honest bread in every land and soil Will claim the Brotherhood of Man, the Comradeship of Toil; When we, the Workers, all demand: `What are we fighting for?' . . . Then, then we'll end that stupid crime, that devil's madness -- War" - Robert Service, fully Robert William Service
"All of the land of Israel is ours." - Yitzhak Shamir, born Icchak Jaziernicki
"Of all hands in the world, it was not the hand that I wanted or dreamed of touching, ... We, the soldiers who have returned from battle stained with blood, we who have seen our relatives and friends killed before our eyes, we who have attended their funerals and cannot look into the eyes of their parents, we who have come from a land where parents bury their children, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians - we say to you today in a loud and clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough. ...The time for peace has come." - Yitzhak Shamir, born Icchak Jaziernicki
"THE MESSIAH - Lord, tell me when Shall come to men Messiah blest, When shall Thy care His couch prepare To be my guest, To sleep on my golden bed, in my palace rest. Wake, dear gazelle, Shake off thy spell, Nor slumber still. Dawn like a flag Surmounts the crag Of Tabor’s hill, And its flame it unfurls o’er my Hermon, the hoar and chill. From the wild-ass brood To the grace renewed Of Thy dainty roe, O Lord, return, For behold we yearn Our love to show, And our soul with Thy soul at one as of yore to know. Thrice welcome he Who comes to me Of David’s line, My palace treasure Is at his pleasure With all that’s mine, My pomegranate, cinnamon, spice, and the jars of my old sweet wine." - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
"O Lord, who can unroll Thy mysteries? For Thou hast made in the Height chambers and store-houses, Some of them awesome to tell of, a tale of mighty doings, And some treasuries of life for the pure and the clean. For some are treasures of salvation to those who have returned from iniquity, And some are treasures of fire, And rivers of brimstone For the breakers of the covenant. And there is a provision of deep pits whose fire is never quenched. "He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein." And there are caverns of storm-winds and tempests And congelation and cold, And treasures of hail and ice and snow and drought, Also of heat and flowing channels And of thick smoke and hoar-frost and of clouds and thick cloud, And darkness and gloom. The whole hast Thou prepared in its due season, "Thou hast ordained it for mercy or judgment, And established it, O Rock, for correction!"" - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
"May it please Thee, O Lord my God, To subdue my fierce desire. O hide Thy face from my sins and trespasses, Do not carry me off in the midst of my days, Until I shall have prepared what is needful for my way And provender for the day of my journeying, For if I go out of my world as I came, And return to my place, naked as I came forth, Wherefore was I created And called to see sorrow? Better were it I had remained where I was Than to have come hither to increase and multiply sin. I beseech Thee, O God, judge me by Thine attribute of mercy, And not by Thine anger lest Thou wither me. For what is man that Thou shouldst judge him? And how shalt Thou weigh a drifting vapour? When Thou placest it in the balance, It shall be neither heavy nor light, And what shall it profit Thee to weigh the air? From the day of his birth man is hard-pressed and harrowed, "Stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." His youth is chaff driven in the wind, And his latter end is flying straw, And his life withereth like a herb, And God joineth in hunting him. From the day he cometh forth from his mother’s womb His night is sorrow and his day is sighing. If to-day he is exalted, To-morrow he shall crawl with worms. A grain of chaff putteth him to flight, And a thorn woundeth him. If he is sated, he waxeth wicked, And if he is hungry, he sinneth for a loaf of bread. His steps are swift to pursue riches, But he forgetteth Death, who is after him. At the time he is straitened, he multiplieth his promises, And scattereth his words, And is profuse in vows, But when he is enlarged, He keepeth back his word and forgetteth his vows, And strengtheneth the bars of his gates, While Death is in his chambers, And he increaseth guards in every quarter While the foe lieth ambushed in his very apartment. As for the wolf, the fence shall not restrain it From coming to the flock. Man entereth the world, And knoweth not why, And rejoiceth, And knoweth not wherefore, And liveth, And knoweth not how long. In his childhood he walketh in his own stubbornness, And when the spirit of lust beginneth in its season To stir him up to gather power and wealth, Then he journeyeth from his place To ride in ships And to tread the deserts, And to carry his life to dens of lions, Adventuring it among wild beasts; And when he imagineth that great is his glory And that mighty is the spoil of his hand, Quietly stealeth the spoiler upon him, And his eyes are opened and there is naught. At every moment he is destined to troubles, That pass and return, And at every hour evils, And at every moment chances, And on every day terrors. If for an instant he stand in security, Suddenly disaster will come upon him, Either war shall come and the sword will smite him, Or the bow of brass transpierce him; Or sorrows will overpower him, Or the presumptuous billows flow over him, Or sickness and steadfast evils shall find him, Till he becometh a burden on his own soul, And shall find the gall of serpents in his honey. And when his pain increaseth His glory decreaseth, And youths make mock of him, And infants rule him, And he becometh a burden to the issue of his loins, And all who know him become estranged from him. And when his hour hath come, he passeth from the courts of his house to the court of Death, And from the shadow of his chambers to the shadow of Death. And he shall strip off his broidery and his scarlet And shall put on corruption and the worm, And lie down in the dust And return to the foundation from which he came. And man, whom these things befall, When shall he find a time for repentance To scour away the rust of his perversion? For the day is short and the work manifold, And the task-masters irate, Hurrying and scurrying, And Time laughs at him And the Master of the House presses. Therefore I beseech Thee, O my God, Remember the distresses that come upon man, And if I have done evil Do Thou me good at my latter end, Nor requite measure for measure To man whose sins are measureless, And whose death is a joyless departure." - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
"When I have ceased to break my wings Against the faultiness of things, And learned that compromises wait Behind each hardly opened gate, When I can look Life in the eyes, Grown calm and very coldly wise, Life will have given me the Truth, And taken in exchange -- my youth. " - Sara Teasdale, born Sara Trevor Teasdale, aka Sara Teasdale Filsinger
"If you take better care of your own health, and build up your reserves, it would certainly be better for you and for your work. Then your sensitive, yearning heart, although you may still often suffer for and with others, will be better able to withstand its trials, and you will not get so exhausted, which is certainly no asset to your work for the Cause." - Shoghí Effendi, fully Shoghí Effendí Rabbání
"Into the woods my Master went, Clean forspent, forspent. Into the woods my Master came, Forspent with love and shame. But the olives they were not blind to Him, The little gray leaves were kind to Him: The thorn-tree had a mind to Him When into the woods He came. Out of the woods my Master went, And He was well content. Out of the woods my Master came, Content with death and shame. When Death and Shame would woo Him last, From under the trees they drew Him last: 'Twas on a tree they slew Him -- last When out of the woods He came." - Sidney Lanier
"Young palmer sun, that to these shining sands Pourest thy pilgrim's tale, discoursing still Thy silver passages of sacred lands, With news of Sepulchre and Dolorous Hill, Canst thou be he that, yester-sunset warm, Purple with Paynim rage and wrack desire, Dashed ravening out of a dusty lair of Storm, Harried the west, and set the world on fire? Hast thou perchance repented, Saracen Sun? Wilt warm the world with peace and dove-desire? Or wilt thou, ere this very day be done, Blaze Saladin still, with unforgiving fire?" - Sidney Lanier
"Portraiture may be a great art. There is a sense indeed in which it is perhaps the greates of any art. And portraiture involves expression. Quite true. But expression of what? Of a passion, an emotion, a mood? Certainly not… The only expression allowable in great portraiture is the expression of character and moral quality, not of anything temporary , fleeting, accidental." - Edward Burne-Jones, fully Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet
"The talents lost--the moments run To waste--the sins of act, of thought, Ten thousand deeds of folly done, And countless virtues cherish'd not." - John Bowring, fully Sir John Bowring
"My fellow Americans I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. (Comment while testing a microphone before a broadcast 11 Aug 84)" - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
"Some of you may remember that in my early days, I was sort of a bleeding heart liberal. Then I became a man and put away childish ways." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
"The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?" - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
"Funny how the new things are the old things." - Rudyard Kipling
"King Solomon drew merchantmen, / Because of his desire / For peacocks, apes and ivory, / From Tarshish unto Tyre." - Rudyard Kipling
"Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously — the midday sun always excepted. " - Rudyard Kipling
"When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, And neither will go from the trail, Lie down till the leaders have spoken, It may be fair words shall prevail" - Rudyard Kipling
"Be wild and crazy and drunk with Love, if you are too careful, Love will not find you." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"Heart, be brave. If you cannot be brave, just go. Love's glory is not a small thing." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"I once had a thousand desires. But in my one desire to know you all else melted away." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL