This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The head does not know how to play the part of the heart for long.
Men | Unhappiness | Happiness |
O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, by that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
Grief |
O momentary grace of mortal men, which we more hunt for than the grace of God! Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks, lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, ready, with every nod, to tumble down into the fatal bowels of the deep.
Oh, how this spring of life resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, And, by and by, a cloud takes all away!
Past cure I am, now Reason is past care, and frantic-mad with evermore unrest; my thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are, at random from the truth vainly express'd; for I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
Present |
PANDARUS: Well, well! Why, have you any discretion? Have you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man? CRESSIDA: Ay, a minc'd man; and then to be bak'd with no date in the pie, for then the man's date is out.
Oh, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful In the contempt and anger of his lip!
Poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose, it was the death of him.
Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue: his faults lie open to the laws; let them, not you, correct him.
Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL
From the vaikrita form of individuation proceeds the eleven-fold set characterized by goodness (sattva); from the bhutadi form of individuation proceed the subtle elements (tanmatras). In this, darkness (tamas) dominates. Both of these proceed from taijasa ahankara, in which rajas dominates.
Sydney Smith playfully says that common sense was invented by Socrates, that philosopher having been one of its most conspicuous exemplars in conducting the contest of practical sagacity against stupid prejudice and illusory beliefs.
Generosity | Gluttony | Men | Taste | Happiness |
May I recognize all the manifestations that appear to me in the bardo (intermediate state) as being my own projections; emanations of my own mind. When the bardo of the moment of death appears may I abandon attachments and mental fixations, and engage without distraction in the path which the instructions make clear. Mind projected into the sphere of uncreated space, separated from body, from flesh and blood, I will know that which is impermanence and illusion.
I am present in front of anyone who has faith in me, just as the moon casts its reflection, effortlessly, in any vessel filled with water.
If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.
Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL
The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.
Peace | Tranquility | Happiness |
Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL
He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.
Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL
He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.