This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.
Abu Yazid Tayfur ibn 'Isa ibn Surushan al-Bismtami
Forgetfulness of self is remembrance of God. Whoever knows God through God becomes alive, and whoever knows God through self becomes dead.
Forgetfulness | God | Self | Wisdom | God |
Stanislas de Boufflers, fully Marquis Stanislas-Jean de Boufflers, Chevalier de Boufflers
Pleasure is the flower that fades; remembrance is the lasting perfume.
My brother, you cannot forget your sins; but it lies within your own decision whether the remembrance shall be thankfulness and blessedness, or whether it shall be pain and loss forever.
Blessedness | Decision | Pain | Thankfulness | Wisdom | Loss |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
The remembrance of pleasure doubles our pain.
It is not just when a villainous act has been committed that it torments us; it is when we think of it afterward, for the remembrance of it last forever.
The human soul is like a bird that is born in a cage. Nothing can deprive it of its natural longings or obliterate the mysterious remembrance of its heritage.
Jonathan Swift, pen names, M.B. Drapier, Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff
Our Knowledge is but mere Remembrance all, Remembrance is our Treasure and our Food.
Bayazid Bastami, also known as Abu-Yazid Al-Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Forgetfulness of self is remembrance of God.
Forgetfulness | God | Self |
Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem in Israel NULL
Forgetfulness is the way to exile. Remembrance is the way to redemption.
To live a day, to care for a single day, is to shape a life. Each day is an opportunity to choose where to place our care. What shall we do today? What simple acts of remembrance will we use to punctuate our time and enrich our walk upon the earth this single day?
Care | Day | Earth | Life | Life | Opportunity | Time | Will |
In the day of prosperity there is a forgetfulness of affliction; and in the day of affliction there is no more remembrance of prosperity.
Affliction | Day | Forgetfulness | Prosperity |
The first and indispensable requisite of happiness is a clear conscience, unsullied by the reproach of remembrance of an unworthy action.
Action | Conscience | Indispensable | Happiness |
The joys of parents are secret; and so are their griefs and fears. They cannot utter the one; nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labors; but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by generation is common to beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works are proper to men.
Children | Death | Life | Life | Memory | Men | Merit | Parents | Will |
The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears; they cannot utter the one, nor they will not utter the other. children sweeten labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter; increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death.
Kaibara Ekken, or Ekiken, also known as Atsunobu NULL
The remembrance of the past is the teacher of the future.