This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
For man is not the creature and product of Mechanism; but, in a far truer sense, its creator and producer.
That balancing moment at which pleasure would allure, and conscience is urging us to refrain, may be regarded as the point of departure or divergency whence one or other of the two processes (towards evil, or towards good) take their commencement. Each of them consists in a particular succession of ideas, with their attendant feelings; and whichever of them may happen to be described once has, by the law of suggestion, the greater chance, in the same circumstances, of being described over again. Should the mind dwell on an object of allurement, and the considerations of principle not be entertained, it will pass inward from the first incitement to the final and guilty indulgence by a series of stepping-stones, each of which will present itself more readily in future, and with less chance of arrest or interruption by the suggestions of conscience than before.
Affront | Appetite | Children | Father | Forgiveness | God | Heaven | Imagination | Men | Right | Spirit | Will | Forgiveness | God |
When false things are brought low, and swift things have grown slow, feigning like froth shall go, faith be for aye. Between us now.
Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann
To allow only the kind of art that the average man understands is the worst small-mindedness and the murder of mind and spirit. It is my conviction that the intellect can be certain that in doing what most disconcerts the crowd, in pursuing the most daring, unconventional advances and explorations, it will in some highly indirect fashion serve man - and in the long run, all men.
But where, say some, is the King of America? I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain... so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king.
Spring Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring, Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing, Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo The palm and may make country houses gay, Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay, Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit In every street these tunes our ears do greet, Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo Spring the sweet Spring.
The wise man has struggled to find You in his wisdom, and he has failed. The just man has striven to grasp You in his own justice, and he has gone astray. But the sinner, suddenly struck by the lightning of mercy that ought to have been justice, falls down in adoration of Your holiness: for he had seen what kings desired to see and never saw, what prophets foretold and never gazed upon, what the men of ancient times grew weary of expecting when they died. He has seen that Your love is so infinitely good that it cannot be the object of a human bargain.
The character which Mr. Washington has attempted to act in the world is a sort of nondescribable, chameleon-colored thing called prudence. It is, in many cases, a substitute for principle, and is so nearly allied to hypocrisy that it easily slides into it. His genius for prudence furnished him in this instance with an expedient that served, as is the natural and general character of all expedients, to diminish the embarrassments of the moment and multiply them afterwards; for he authorized it to be made known to the French Government, as a confidential matter (Mr. Washington should recollect that I was a member of the Convention, and had the means of knowing what I here state), he authorized it, I say, to be announced, and that for the purpose of preventing any uneasiness to France on the score of Mr. Jay's mission to England, that the object of that mission, and of Mr. Jay's authority, was restricted to that of demanding the surrender of the western posts, and indemnification for the cargoes captured in American vessels.
Cause | Circumstances | Man | Mankind | Nature | Power | Principles | Rights | War | Will |
Tim McGraw, fully Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw
Well, you do what you do and you pay for your sins, but there's no such thing as what might have been. That's a waste of time; drive you outta your mind.
Need |
Maximus of Tyre, fully Cassius Maximus Tyrius NULL
Amid so much war and contest and variety of opinion, you will find one consenting conviction in every land, that there is one God, the King and Father of all.
Art | Father | Memory | Object | Time | Words | Art | Understand |
When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes not oppressive; the rational world is my friend because I am friend of its happiness; when these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and government.
To Spring - O Thou with dewy locks, who lookest down Through the clear windows of the morning, turn Thine angel eyes upon our western isle, Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring! The hills tell one another, and the listening Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn'd Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth And let thy holy feet visit our clime! Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee. O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put Thy golden crown upon her languish'd head, Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.
Edward Dyer, fully Sir Edward Dyer
I woulde it were not as it is Or that I cared not yea or no; I woulde I thoughte it not amiss, Or that amiss mighte blamles goo; I woulde I were, yet woulde I not, I mighte be gladd yet coulde I not. I coulde desire to know the meane Or that the meane desyre soughte; I woulde I coulde my fancye weane From suche sweet joyes as Love hathe wroughte; Onlye my wishe is leaste of all A badge whereby to know a thrall. O happy man whiche doste aspire To that whiche semeleye thou dost crave! Thrise happy man, if thy desyre Maye winn with hope good happ to have; But woe to me unhappy man Whom hope nor happ acquiet cann. The budds of hope are starvde with feare And still his foe presents his face; My state, if hope the palme shoulde beare Unto my happ woulde be disgrace. As diamond in woode were set Or Irus raggs in goulde I frett. For loe my tyrèd shoulders beare Desyre's weery beatinge winges; And at my feet a clogg I weare Tyde one wth selfe disdayning stringes. My wings to mounte aloft make hast. My clog doth sinke me downe as faste. This is our state, loe thus we stande They ryse to fall that climbe to hye; The boye that fled kynge Minos lande Maye learne the wise more love to flye. What gaynde his poynte agaynste the sonne He drownde in seas himself, that wonne. Yet Icarus more happy was, By present deathe his cares to ende Than I, pore mann, on whom alas Tenn thousande deathes theire paynes do sende. Now greife, now hope, now loue, now spyghte Longe sorrows mixte withe shorte delyghte. The pheere and fellowe of thy smarte Prometheus I am indeede; Upon whose ever livinge harte The greedy gryphes do daylye feede; But he that lyfts his harte so hye Muste be contente to pine and dye.
Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade, Apt emblem of a virtuous maid Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng: With gentle yet prevailing force, Intent upon her destined course; Graceful and useful all she does, Blessing and blest where'er she goes; Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass, And Heaven reflected in her face.
Age | Better | God | Grief | Happy | Joy | Longing | Love | Men | Peace | Providence | Receive | Sacred | Story | Troubles | Weakness | God | Child |
God Hides His People - To lay the soul that loves him low, Becomes the Only–wise: To hide beneath a veil of woe, The children of the skies. Man, though a worm, would yet be great; Though feeble, would seem strong; Assumes an independent state, By sacrilege and wrong. Strange the reverse, which, once abased, The haughty creature proves! He feels his soul a barren waste, Nor dares affirm he loves. Scorned by the thoughtless and the vain, To God he presses near; Superior to the world's disdain, And happy in its sneer. Oh welcome, in his heart he says, Humility and shame! Farewell the wish for human praise, The music of a name! But will not scandal mar the good That I might else perform? And can God work it, if he would, By so despised a worm? Ah, vainly anxious!—leave the Lord To rule thee, and dispose; Sweet is the mandate of his word, And gracious all he does. He draws from human littleness His grandeur and renown; And generous hearts with joy confess The triumph all his own. Down, then, with self–exalting thoughts; Thy faith and hope employ, To welcome all that he allots, And suffer shame with joy. No longer, then, thou wilt encroach On his eternal right; And he shall smile at thy approach, And make thee his delight.
Age | Better | God | Grief | Happy | Joy | Longing | Love | Men | Peace | Providence | Receive | Sacred | Story | Troubles | Weakness | God | Child |
Love to faults is always blind; Always is to joy inclin’d, Lawless, wing’d and unconfin’d, And breaks all chains from every mind. Deceit to secrecy confin’d, Lawful, cautious and refin’d; To anything but interest blind, And forges fetters for the mind.
Benevolence | Burial | Divinity | Enemy | God | Man | Marriage | Men | Murder | Receive | Smile | Time | Will | Wishes | Worship | Friendship | God | Murder | Forgive | Friends |
Infant joy. I have no name I am but two days old.- what shall I call thee? I happy am joy is my name,- sweet joy befell thee! Pretty joy! Sweet joy but two days old. Sweet joy I call thee: thou dost smile. I sing the while sweet joy befell thee.
Each sinner transformed into a saint is a new token of a redeeming power among men. That token declares to observers, not that there is a King in heaven, not that there is a "Father of Lights," but that there is a Savior. And this is the testimony that the world especially needs.