This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Returning he proclaims by many a grace, by shrugs and strange contortions of his face, how much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
Says John, It is my wedding-day, and all the world would stare, if wife should dine at Edmonton, and I should dine at Ware.
Whittaker Chambers, born Jay Vivian Chambers, aka Jay David Whittaker Chambers
It is in fact no exaggeration to say that we live in terror that Senator McCarthy will one day make some irreparable blunder that will play directly into the hands of our common enemy and discredit the whole anti-Communist effort for a long while to come.
Evidence | Hope | Knowledge | Little | Men | Need | Thought | Thought |
Walter Pater, fully Walter Horatio Pater
Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them, or to use words like beauty, excellence, art, poetry, with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.
Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha
Failing conventionally is the route to go; as a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press
Wei Wu Wei, pen name for Terence James Stannus Gray
The seeing of Truth cannot be dualistic (a ‘thing’ seen). It cannot be seen by a see-er, or via a see-er. There can only be a seeing which itself is Truth.
Man |
W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
It's usually the stupid people that develop long illnesses. You need more than indolence and selfishness, you need endurance to make a good patient.
Position |
To be perfectly happy it does not suffice to possess happiness, it is necessary to have deserved it.
The One Lord of the Universe is the Support of His humble servants. They love the One Lord; their minds are filled with love for the Lord. The Name of the Lord is all treasures for them.
Lord |
The same gold is fashioned into various articles; just so, the Lord has made the many patterns of the creation.
Thomas R. Kelly, fully Thomas Raymond Kelly
But whatever the earthly history of this moment of charm, this vision of an absolutely holy life is, I am convinced, the invading, urging, inviting, persuading work of the Eternal One. It is curious that modern psychology cannot account wholly for flashes of insight of any kind, sacred or secular. It is as if a fountain of creative Mind were welling up, bubbling to expression within prepared spirits. There is an infinite fountain of lifting power, pressing within us, luring us by dazzling visions, and we can only say, The creative God comes into our souls. An increment of infinity is about us. Holy is imagination, the gateway of Reality into our hearts. The Hound of Heaven is on our track, the God of Love is wooing us to His Holy Life. Once having the vision, the second step to holy obedience is this: Begin where you are. Obey now. Use what little obedience you are capable of, even if it be like a grain of mustard seed. Begin where you are. Live this present moment, this present hour as you now sit in your seats, in utter, utter submission and openness toward Him. Listen outwardly to these words, but within, behind the scenes, in the deeper levels of your lives where you are all alone with God the Loving Eternal One, keep up a silent prayer, "Open Thou my life. Guide my thoughts where I dare not let them go. But Thou darest. Thy will be done." Walk on the streets and chat with your friends. But every moment behind the scenes be in prayer, offering yourselves in continuous obedience. I find this internal continuous prayer life absolutely essential. It can be carried on day and night, in the thick of business, in home and school. Such prayer of submission can be so simple. It is well to use a single sentence, repeated over and over and over again, such as this: "Be Thou my will. Be Thou my will," or "I open all before Thee. I open all before Thee," or "See earth through heaven, See earth through heaven." This hidden prayer life can pass, in time, beyond words and phrases into mere ejaculations, "My God, my God, my Holy One, my Love," or into the adoration of the Upanishad, "O Wonderful, O Wonderful, O Wonderful." Words may cease and one stands and walks and sits and lies in wordless attitudes of adoration and submission and rejoicing and exultation and glory.
Enough | Faith | God | Greed | Heart | Humility | Imperialism | Little | Means | Smile | War | Will | Wise | God |
After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
And give to dust that is a little gilt more laud than gilt o'er-dusted.
Think |
And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
Cry ''havoc!'' and let loose the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial. Julius Caesar, Act iii, Scene 1