This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Evil is easily discovered; there is an infinite variety; good is almost unique. But some kinds of evil are almost as difficult to discover as that which we call good; and often particular evil of this class passes for good. It needs even a certain greatness of soul to attain to this, as to that which is good.
The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.
To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. So far from greatness consisting in going beyond its limits, it really consists in keeping within it.
Greatness | Humanity | Knowing | Moderation | Soul | Moderation |
Bhagavad Gītā, simply known as Gita NULL
As leaving aside his worn-out garments, a man takes other new ones, so leaving aside worn-out bodies the embodied soul goes to other new ones.
It is certain that the soul is either mortal or immortal. The decision of this question must make a total difference in the principles of morals. Yet philosophers have arranged their moral system entirely independent of this. What an extraordinary blindness!
The soul is not this, it is not that. It is unseizable, for it is not seized. It is indestructible, for it is not destroyed. It is unattached, for it does not attach itself. It is unbound. It does not tremble. It is not injured.
Soul |
We should pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God; we should act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves.
Earnestness | Energy | God |
Charles Dickens, fully Charles John Huffam Dickens
The suspense - the fearful, acute suspense, of standing idly by while the life of one we dearly love is trembling in the balance; the racking thoughts that crowd upon the mind and make the heart beat violently, and the breath come thick; the desperate anxiety "to be doing something" to relieve the pain or lessen the danger which we have no power to alleviate; and the sinking of soul which the sad sense of our helplessness produces, what tortures can equal these, and what reflections or efforts can, in the full tide and fever of time, allay them.
Anxiety | Anxiety | Balance | Danger | Heart | Life | Life | Love | Mind | Pain | Power | Sense | Soul | Suspense | Time | Danger |
We should act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves; and we should pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God.
Earnestness | Energy | God |
This soul of mine within the heart is smaller than a grain of rice, or a barley-corn, or a mustard-seed, or a grain of millet, or the kernel of a grain of millet. This soul of mine within the heart is greater than the earth, greater than the atmosphere, grater than the sky, greater than these worlds.
The first and last lesson of Yoga is the attitude of mind and heart. The aim of Yoga is to unite mind, body, spirit. The reward of yoga practice is the conversion of physical energy into mind power. The practices give a definite sense of control and raise the levels of consciousness awareness. These practices are not to be done competitively, to exhibit to one's friends, to expand the ego. While each of us, according to our temperament, must find the best mental approach, it should be one of self-surrender. Quiet, but joyful. Concentrated. Never strained. Outer control of the body is a means of regulating the inner functioning.
Awareness | Body | Consciousness | Control | Ego | Energy | Heart | Lesson | Means | Mind | Power | Practice | Quiet | Reward | Self | Sense | Spirit | Surrender |
Charles Dickens, fully Charles John Huffam Dickens
It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature, that, when the heart is touched and softened by some tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. It would seem almost as though our better thoughts and sympathies were charms, in virtue of which the soul is enabled to hold some vague and mysterious intercourse with the spirits of those whom we loved in life. Alas! how often and how long may these patient angels hover around us, watching for the spell which is so soon forgotten!
Angels | Better | Heart | Life | Life | Memory | Nature | Soul | Virtue | Virtue | Happiness |
He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he will have his labor to renew. A strong soil that has produced weeds may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.
Cost | Difficulty | Energy | Enough | Labor | Little | Nothing | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Vice |
He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body. He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is on the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinizing the hearts of others, he neglects not his own.
Body | Books | Knowledge | Men | Observation | Reflection | Right | Soul | Will |
Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker
Body and soul are not two substances but one. They are man becoming aware of himself in two different ways.
Verily, not for love of the husband is a husband dear, but for love of the Soul a husband is dear.