This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Those for whom the belief in immortality is most vivid are the most likely to practice the virtues which have a survival value and the least likely to deviate into either those virtues or those vices which are exclusively human.
Belief | Immortality | Practice | Survival | Value |
Maltbie Babcock, fully Maltbie Davenport Babcock
Death is a great preacher of deathlessness. The protest of the soul against death, its reversion, its revulsion, is a high instinct of life. Dissatisfaction in his world who satisfieth the desire of every living thing has a grip on the future. As far as this goes, he has the least assurance of immortality who can be best satisfied with eating and drinking and “things”’ he has the surest hope of ongoings and far distances who does not live by brad alone, whose eye is looking over the shoulder of things, whose ear hears mighty waters rolling ever more, who has “hopes naught can satisfy below.” The limits of which death makes us aware, make us aware of life’s limitlessness. The wing cage knows it was meant for an ampler ether and diviner air.
Death | Desire | Future | Hope | Immortality | Instinct | Life | Life | Protest | Soul | World |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
Should this my firm persuasion of the soul's immortality prove to be a mere delusion, it is at least a pleasing delusion, and I will cherish it to my last breath.
Delusion | Immortality | Persuasion | Soul | Will |
The belief in immortality depends finally upon the belief in God. If there exists a good and wise God, then there also exists a progress of mankind toward perfection; and if there be no progress of men towards perfection, then there cannot be a good and wise God. We cannot suppose that God’s moral government, the beginnings of which we see in the world and in ourselves, will cease when we leave this life.
Belief | God | Good | Government | Immortality | Life | Life | Mankind | Men | Perfection | Progress | Will | Wise | World |
I am a better believer, and all serious souls are better believers, in immortality than we can give grounds for.
Better | Immortality |
If a man is at heart just, then in so far is he God; the safety of God, the immortality of God, the majesty of God, do enter in that man with justice.
God | Heart | Immortality | Justice | Man |
The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution.
Evidence | Immortality |
Robert Ingersoll, fully Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll
Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.
Hope | Immortality |
William Jones, fully Sir William Jones of Nayland, aka Trinity Jones
We find in God all the excellences of light, truth, wisdom, greatness, goodness and life. Light gives joy and gladness; truth gives satisfaction; wisdom gives learning and instruction; greatness excites admiration; goodness produces love and gratitude; life gives immortality and insures enjoyment.
Admiration | Enjoyment | God | Gratitude | Greatness | Immortality | Joy | Learning | Life | Life | Light | Love | Truth | Wisdom | God |
Susan Ertz, aka Mrs. J.R. McCrindle
Millions yearn for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Susan Ertz, aka Mrs. J.R. McCrindle
Someone has somewhere commented on the fact that millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
William Faulkner, fully William Cuthbert Faulkner
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist's way of scribbling Kilroy was here on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.
Immortality | Life | Life | Looks | Man | Means | Oblivion | Will |
By conversing with the mighty dead, we imbibe sentiment with knowledge. We become strongly attached to those who can no longer either hurt or serve us, except through the influence which they exert over the mind. We feel the presence of that power which gives immortality to human thoughts and actions, and catch the flame of enthusiasm from all nations and ages.
Enthusiasm | Immortality | Influence | Knowledge | Mind | Nations | Power | Sentiment |
Arianna Huffington, born Arianna Stassinopoulos
Our current obsession with creativity is the result of our continued striving for immortality in an era when most people no longer believe in an after-life.
Creativity | Era | Immortality | Life | Life | Obsession | People |
If there is a God, man's immortality is certain. If not, Immortality would not be worth having.
Immortality | Worth |
Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
To possess, is past the instant we achieve the joy - immortality contented were anomaly.
Immortality | Joy | Past |
You can believe in God without believing in immortality, but it is hard to see how anyone can believe in immortality and not believe in God.
God | Immortality | God |