This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Salman Rushdie, fully Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie
It’s fun to read things when you don't know all the words. Even children love it. One of the things any great children’s writer will tell you is that children like it if in books designed for their age group there is a vocabulary just slightly bigger than theirs.So they come up against weird words, and the weird words excite them. If you describe a small girl in a story as loquacious, it works so much better than talkative. And then some little girl will read the book and her sister will be shooting her mouth off and she will say to her sister, Don't be so loquacious. It is a whole new weapon in her arsenal.
My readers at that time were still men of letters; but there had to be other people waiting to read my poems.
Acceptance | Man | Opposition | Poverty | Redemption |
A hundred thousand men were led by one calf near three centuries dead; They followed still his crooked way and lost a hundred years a day; For thus such reverence is lent to well-established precedent.
Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night, Brother to Death, in silent darkness born, Relieve my languish, and restore the light, With dark forgetting of my cares return.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
He that recalls the attention of mankind to any part of learning which time has left behind it, may be truly said to advance the literature of his own age.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
To-day more than ever . . . the capitalist class, or the worst elements in that class, stand as a constant opposition to anything we may demand, and also as a constant force to try and invade the rights we have already secured, and to take away from us the advantages we have achieved.
Better | Faith | Labor | People | Position | Problems | Right | Will | Work |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. In the same manner present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges, and intent upon future advantages. Life, however short, is made shorter by waste of time.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Pride is seldom delicate: it will please itself with very mean advantages.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?
Crime | Humanity | Man | Punishment |
As long as my property taxes are high, I have to raise rents or make adjustments.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Wealth is nothing in itself, it is not useful but when it departs from us; its value is found only in that which it can purchase, which, if we suppose it put to its best use by those that posses it, seems not much to deserve the desire or envy of a wise man. It is certain that, with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the passages to anguish. Disease and infirmity still continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by softness. With respect to the mind, it has rarely been observed, that wealth contributes much to quicken the discernment, enlarge the capacity, or elevate the imagination; but may, by hiring flattery, or laying diligence asleep, confirm error, and harden stupidity.
Crime |
When the Lord is known all fetters fall off; with the cessation of miseries, birth and death come to an end. From meditation on Him there arises, after the dissolution of the body, the third state, that of universal lordship. And lastly, the aspirant, transcending that state also, abides in the complete Bliss of Brahman.