This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Thou livest, but not from any restricted season nor from any known period. Thou livest, but not through breath and soul, for Thou art soul of the soul. Thou livest, but not with the life of man, which is like unto vanity and its end the moth and the worm. Thou livest, and he who layeth hold of Thy secret shall find eternal delight: "He shall eat and live for ever."
The woods were made for the hunter of dreams, The brooks for the fishers of song; To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game The streams and the woods belong. There are thoughts that moan from the soul of pine And thoughts in a flower bell curled; And thoughts that are blown with scent of the fern Are as new and as old as the world.
Beauty | Good | Knowledge | Love | Need | Passion | Will | Woman | Words | Beauty | Child |
Samuel ha-Nagid, born Samuel ibn Naghrela or Naghrillah
Spirit splits in its asking, and soul in its wanted is balked; and the body, fattened, is vital and full— its precious being uneasy . . . But the modest man walks on the earth with his thought drawn toward sky. What good is the pulse of man’s flesh and its favors when the mind is in pain?
Earth | Fear | God | Good | Light | Man | Men | Mind | Sense | Soul | Thinking | Will | Friendship | God | Friends |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Who can approach Thy seat? For beyond the sphere of Intelligence hast Thou established the throne of Thy glory; There standeth the splendour of Thy veiled habitation, And the mystery and the foundation. Thus far reacheth Intelligence, but cometh here to a standstill, For higher still hast Thou mounted, and ascended Thy mighty throne, "And no man may go up with Thee."
Angels | Art | Beginning | Change | Dread | Intelligence | Light | Lord | Power | Spirit | Universe | Work | Art |
W'en you see a man in woe, Walk right up and say "hullo." Say "hullo" and "how d'ye do," "How's the world a-usin' you?" . . . W'en you travel through the strange Country t'other side the range, Then the souls you've cheered will know Who you be, an' say "hullo."
Friend |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Three things remind me of You, the heavens who are a witness to Your name the earth which expands my thought and is the thing on which I stand and the musing of my heart when I look within.
Anger | Day | Glory | God | Good | Life | Life | Light | Lord | Mercy | Peace | Receive | Righteousness | Service | Unity | Will | World | God |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
May it please Thee, O Lord my God, To return to me in mercy, And to bring me back to Thee in perfect repentance. O dispose my heart and turn Thine ear to supplication, And open my heart to Thy law, And plant in my thoughts the fear of Thee, And decree for me good decrees, And annul the evil decrees against me, And lead me not into the power of temptation, Nor into the power of contempt, And from all evil chances deliver me, And hide me in Thy shadow until the havoc pass by, And be with my mouth in my meditation, And keep my ways from sin through my tongue, And remember me when Thou rememberest and favourest Thy people, And when Thou rebuildest Thy Temple, That I may behold the bliss of Thy chosen ones, And purify me to seek diligently Thy Sanctuary devastated and ruined, And to cherish its stones and its dust, And the clods of its desolation, And rebuild Thou its wastes!
Affliction | Eternal | Good | Mercy | Past | Pity | Rage | Rest | Reward | Trust | Wickedness | Will | Blessed |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Who can grasp Thy wonders? For Thou hast appointed him to furnish light to the stars Of high or low degree, And to the Moon, "If that white bright spot stays in its place" And according as she moves away to stand opposite the Sun, She receiveth his shining Until his light is at the full when she stands before him, And it irradiates her whole face. And when that she draws nigh in the latter half of the month, And declineth from him And is far from standing opposite him And proceedeth to the side of him, In that degree waneth her splendour, Till the end of her month and her circuit, And she declineth to her extreme rim. And when she is in conjunction with him She is hid in secret places For a day and half an hour And some numbered moments, And after that she is renewed and returneth to her prior self And "issueth forth as a bridegroom from his chamber."
God created one human being, who was male and female. That means ultimately all of us are interconnected. That there is one God means we are all connected. Individual well-being depends on the greater well-being of everyone. There is no separation. This is a call for inclusion. Jews see it as including the weaker, the marginal, the orphans, the stranger. We were slaves in Egypt. Our task is not to replicate Egyptian power. We are free so we can operate differently, and not replicate slavery. Judaism is a complex, ongoing civilization, in which there is more than one view. Judaism is a religion of interpretation. We believe interpretation is part of the unfolding of creation and Divine creativity. Our interpretive tradition draws a connection between spirituality and social justice.
God | History | Literature | Meditation | Men | Mindfulness | Mystical | Mysticism | Work | World | Worship | God | Old | Think |
I knowed a man, which he lived in Jones, Which Jones is a county of red hills and stones, And he lived pretty much by gittin' of loans, And his mules was nuthin' but skin and bones, And his hogs was flat as his corn-bread pones, And he had 'bout a thousand acres o' land. This man -- which his name it was also Jones -- He swore that he'd leave them old red hills and stones, Fur he couldn't make nuthin' but yallerish cotton, And little o' THAT, and his fences was rotten, And what little corn he had, HIT was boughten And dinged ef a livin' was in the land. And the longer he swore the madder he got, And he riz and he walked to the stable lot, And he hollered to Tom to come thar and hitch Fur to emigrate somewhar whar land was rich, And to quit raisin' cock-burrs, thistles and sich, And a wastin' ther time on the cussed land. So him and Tom they hitched up the mules, Pertestin' that folks was mighty big fools That 'ud stay in Georgy ther lifetime out, Jest scratchin' a livin' when all of 'em mought Git places in Texas whar cotton would sprout By the time you could plant it in the land. And he driv by a house whar a man named Brown Was a livin', not fur from the edge o' town, And he bantered Brown fur to buy his place, And said that bein' as money was skace, And bein' as sheriffs was hard to face, Two dollars an acre would git the land. They closed at a dollar and fifty cents, And Jones he bought him a waggin and tents, And loaded his corn, and his wimmin, and truck, And moved to Texas, which it tuck His entire pile, with the best of luck, To git thar and git him a little land. But Brown moved out on the old Jones' farm, And he rolled up his breeches and bared his arm, And he picked all the rocks from off'n the groun', And he rooted it up and he plowed it down, Then he sowed his corn and his wheat in the land. Five years glid by, and Brown, one day (Which he'd got so fat that he wouldn't weigh), Was a settin' down, sorter lazily, To the bulliest dinner you ever see, When one o' the children jumped on his knee And says, "Yan's Jones, which you bought his land." And thar was Jones, standin' out at the fence, And he hadn't no waggin, nor mules, nor tents, Fur he had left Texas afoot and cum To Georgy to see if he couldn't git sum Employment, and he was a lookin' as hum- Ble as ef he had never owned any land. But Brown he axed him in, and he sot Him down to his vittles smokin' hot, And when he had filled hisself and the floor Brown looked at him sharp and riz and swore That, "whether men's land was rich or poor Thar was more in the MAN than thar was in the LAND.
Shlomo Wolbe, aka Wilhelm Wolbe
The positive desire for self-work and growth is often hampered by our weak character, forgetfulness, instability and the many other attacks our yetzer (evil inclination) launches upon us. [We say to ourselves:] “The ground you have given me is infertile…” Woe is to the one who lacks patience with oneself! Such an individual will speedily despair from all self-work and growth, and even if he does not totally lose hope, he inevitably falls into sadness, and there is no greater damaging state of being to our service of Hashem than sadness.
Children | Education | Guidance | Nature | Patience | Thought | Woe | Youth | Youth | Guidance | Child | Thought |
Anthony Kenny, fully Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny
Internalized experiences of selfhood are linked to autobiographical narratives, which are linked to biographies, legal testimonies, and medical case histories, which are linked to forms of therapy and theories of the subject.
Control | Defects | Humility | Inclination | Judgment | Passion | Reason | Virtue | Virtue |
Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.
Freedom |
Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
This administration is totally colorblind.
Blame | Children | Circumstances | Destroy | Dreams | Extravagance | History | Inevitable | Obligation | Past | Position | Teach | Thrift | Will | Yielding | Learn |
Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
Secrecy |
Plato was right in calling atheism a disease.—The human intellect in its healthy action, holds it for certain that there is a Great Being over us, invisible, infinite, ineffable, but of real, solid personality, who made and governs us, and who made and governs all things.
Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner
The occultist sees in the man of today a being in the full swing of evolution. Man is at the same time a fallen God and a God in the becoming.
Life | Life | Psychology | Soul | Spirit | System | Thinking | Following |