This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
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
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry in what I further shall intend to do, by heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs: the time and my intents are savage-wild, more fierce and more inexorable far than empty tigers or the roaring sea. Romeo and Juliet, Act v, Scene 3
Doubly porcullis'd with my teeth and lips; and dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance is made my gaoler to attend on me. I am too old to fawn upon a nurse, too far in years to be a pupil now; what is thy sentence then but speechless death which robs my tongue from breathing native breath? Richard II, Act i, Scene III
Gall |
Didst thou never hear that things ill got had ever bad success? And happy always was it for that son whose father for his hoarding went to hell? King Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Love |
DON PEDRO: Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick. BEATRICE: Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it. DON PEDRO: You have put him down, lady, you have put him down. BEATRICE: So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools. Much Ado About Nothing, Act ii, Scene 1
Do not honor him so much to prick thy finger, though to wound his heart. What valor were it, when a cur doth grin, for one to thrust his hand between his teeth when he might spurn him with his foot away? Henry VI, Act i, Scene 4
Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world: It is not he who prays most or fasts most, it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.
Death | Delusion | Desire | Eternal | Faith | Life | Life | Love | Nothing | Waste | Will | Zeal |
We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can… in the acquisition of a new habit, we must take car to launch ourselves with as strong and decided initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life… The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.
Common Sense | Fighting | Sense | Will | World |
Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams
We're not obsessed by anything, you see, insisted Ford...And that's the deciding factor. We can't win against obsession. They care, we don't. They win. I care about lots of things, said Slartibartfast, his voice trembling partly with annoyance, but partly also with uncertainty. Such as? Well, said the old man, life, the Universe. Everything, really. Fjords. Would you die for them? Fjords? blinked Slartibartfast in surprise. No. Well then. Wouldn't see the point, to be honest.
Absence lessens moderate passions and increases great ones; as the wind extinguishes the taper, but kindles the burning dwelling.
Passion |
Now will I stir this gamester: I hope I shall see an end of him: for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never schooled and yet learned; full of noble device; of all sorts enchantingly beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and especially of my own people, who best know him, that I am altogether misprised: but it shall not be so long; this wrestler shall clear all: nothing remains but that I kindle the boy thither, which now I'll go about.
O! from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
Heaven |
O, wither’d is the garland of the war! The soldier’s pole is fall'n; young boys and girls are level now with men; the odds is gone, and there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon.
Appetite | Good | Imagination | Thinking |
Oh God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!
Heaven |
Hakuin, fully Hakuin Akaku NULL
Not knowing how near the Truth is, People seek It far away, -- what a pity! They are like one who, in the midst of water, Cries imploringly for a drink of water, Or like the son of a rich man Who wanders away among the poor. ... Those who testify to the truth of the nature of the Self, Have found it by reflecting within themselves, And have gone beyond the realm of mere ideas. For them opens the gate of the oneness of cause and effect; And straight runs the path of non-duality ... Abiding with the Undivided amidst the divided, Whether going or returning, they remain forever unmoved. Holding fast to, and remembering, That which is beyond thought, In their every act, they hear the voice of the Truth. How limitless the sky of unbounded freedom! How pure the perfect moonlight of Wisdom! At that moment, what do they lack? As the eternally quiescent Truth reveals Itself to them, This very earth is the lotus-land of Purity, And this body -is the body of the Buddha.
My interest in Sufism began when I was a college student. At the time, I was a rebellious young woman who liked to wrap several shawls of '-isms' around her shoulders: I was a leftist, feminist, nihilist, environmentalist, anarcho-pacifist ... I wasn't interested in any religion and the difference between 'religiosity' and 'spirituality' was lost to me. Having spent some time of my childhood with a loving grandmother with many superstitions and beliefs, I had a sense the world was not composed of solely material things and there was more to life than I could see. But the truth is, I wasn't interested in understanding the world. I only wanted to Change it.
Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen
The slight sense of degeneracy induced by reading novels before luncheon
Illusion |