This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Oh, what may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen! Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, whilst bloody treason flourished over us.
Oh, what a world of vile ill-favored faults looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
O, what authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Without thinking that death will come, I am absorbed in plans for the future. After having done the many and futile activities of this life I will leave utterly empty-handed. What a blunder; as I will certainly need an understanding of the excellent Dharma (proper conduct). So why not practice now?
Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy, or fight someone, we tumble straight into the fires of hell.
Change | Contentment | Daughter | Day | Life | Life | Light | Looks | Mind | Nothing | People | Power | Regret | Safe | Time | Will | Wonder | Wrong | Think |
Eleanor Brown, fully Nora Eleanor Louisa Hervey Brown
We all have stories we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves we are too fat, too ugly, or too old, or too foolish. We tell ourselves these stories because they allow us to excuse our actions, and they allow us to pass off the responsibility for things we have done-maybe to something within our control, but anything other than the decisions we have made.
Say that she frown, I'll say she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew.
Say that she rail, why then I'll tell her plain she sings as sweetly as a nightingale. Say that she frown, I'll say she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew. Say she be mute and will not speak a word, then I'll commend her volubility and say she uttereth piercing eloquence.
Looks |
She shall be buried by her Antony: no grave upon the earth shall clip in it a pair so famous.
She dreams of him that has forgot her love; you dote on her that cares not for your love. 'Tis pity love should be so contrary; and thinking of it makes me cry 'alas!
Say that upon the altar of her beauty you sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart: write till your ink be dry and with your tears moist it again, and frame some feeling line, that may discover such integrity.
He showed me a sketch he'd drawn once during meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standing up, hands clasped in prayer. But this figure had four legs, and no head. Where the head should have been, there was only a wild foliage of ferns and flowers. There was a small, smiling face drawn over the heart. To find the balance you want, Ketut spoke through his translator, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God.
Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning
An ignorance of means may minister to greatness, but an ignorance of aims make it impossible to be great at all.