This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Vivienne Westwood, born Vivienne Isabel Swire
I thought Sex And The City was supposed to be about cutting-edge fashion and there was nothing remotely memorable or interesting about what I saw...I went to the premiere and left after ten minutes.
Vivienne Westwood, born Vivienne Isabel Swire
There's this idea that somehow you've got to keep changing things, and as often as possible. Maybe if people just decided not to buy anything for a while, they'd get a chance to think about what they wanted; what they really liked.
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
When I have a model who is quiet and steady and with whom I am acquainted, then I draw repeatedly 'til there is one drawing that is different from the rest, which does not look like an ordinary study, but more typical and with more feeling.
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
I can very well in life, and also in painting, deprive of God, but I cannot, suffering, depriving me of something bigger than me, it's my life, the power to create. And if frustrated in this power physical, seeks to create thoughts instead of children, should also be admitted into humanity.
Looks |
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
Our apparitions, the things you know us by, are simply childish. Beneath it is all dark, it is all spreading, it is unfathomably deep; but now and again we rise to the surface and that is what you see us by.
François-René de Chateaubriand, fully François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand
One can never be the judge of another's grief. That which is a sorrow to one, to another is joy. Let us not dispute with any one concerning the reality of his sufferings; it is with sorrows as with countries - each man has his own.
Change | Dawn | Doubt | Light | Looks | Men | Nations | Revolution | Thinking | Tomorrow | Will | World | Old |
Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl
I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him.
Offer your talents at the feet of God; let every act be a flower, free from creeping worms of envy and egoism and full of the fragrance of love and sacrifice.
Looks |
The women that lie upon couches and upon beds, and they that rest in litters, the women all that exhale sweet fragrance, do we put to sleep.
Looks |
Time, the steed, runs with seven reins (rays), thousand-eyed, ageless, rich in seed. The seers, thinking holy thoughts, mount him, all the beings (worlds) are his wheels.
Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
I suppose the most important thing, the heaviest single factor in one's life, is whether one's born male or female. In most societies it determines one's expectations, activities, outlook, ethics, manners—almost everything. Vocabulary. Semiotic usages. Clothing. Even food. Women... women tend to eat less... It's extremely hard to separate the innate differences from the learned ones. Even where women participate equally with men in the society, they still after all do all the childbearing, and so most of the child-rearing....
God does not always send his prophets through the convention assembly line lest they come out wearing a stamp that does not become them.
It is a far cry from the abacus to the modern keyboard accounting machine. It will be an equal step to the arithmetical machine of the future. But even this new machine will not take the scientist where he needs to go. Relief must be secured from laborious detailed manipulation of higher mathematics as well, if the users of it are to free their brains for something more than repetitive detailed transformations in accordance with established rules.
Looks |
Tom Lehrer, fully Thomas Andrew Lehrer
Be prepared, and be careful not to do your good deeds when there's no one watching you.
Looks |
Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety.