This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
R. W. Sellars, fully Roy Wood Sellars
The religion of human possibilities needs prophets who will grip men’s souls with their description of a society in which righteousness, wisdom, and beauty will reign together … Loyalty to such an ideal will surely constitute the heart of the humanist’s religion.
Beauty | Heart | Loyalty | Loyalty | Religion | Society | Will | Society | Beauty |
This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
Civilization | Hate | Nonsense | Patriotism |
This dying year will bear witness for or against us at the judgment. We sometimes say, "Time dies." Is time dead? No. The years die, but time lives. Time will live till the judgment, and then "Time shall be no longer." When time ends, eternity begins. The passing years are time's children, which will come from their graves to bear witness in the case pending between God and men at the great judgment-seat. Among the years which shall witness against us will be this dying year. If it shall be seen that in the year's record are written bright pages concerning us, happy shall we be. Pages which tell of toils for Jesus, of earnest prayers, of loyalty to God and conscience, of self-denials, of visitation of the sick, of sympathy for the distressed, of instruction of the ignorant--how many such things has the old year written for us?
Eternity | God | Happy | Loyalty | Loyalty | Men | Sympathy | Time | Will | Witness | Instruction | God | Old |
It is a painful fact, but there is no denying it, the masts are the tools of circumstances; thistle-down on the breeze, straw on the river, their course is shaped for them by the currents and eddies of the stream of life; but only in proportion as they are things, not men and women. Man was meant to be not the slave, but the master, of circumstances, and in proportion as he recovers his humanity, in every sense of the great obsolete word,--in proportion as he gets back the spirit of manliness, which is self-sacrifice, affection, loyalty to an idea beyond himself, a God above himself, so far will he rise above circumstances, and wield them at his will.
God | Loyalty | Loyalty | Man | Men | Sense | Spirit | Will | God |
Red Skelton, fully Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton
If I may I would like to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and give you a definition for each word. I: me, an individual, a committee of one. Pledge: dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity. Allegiance: my love and my devotion. To the Flag: our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there is respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody
Dignity | Freedom | Love | Loyalty | Loyalty | Respect | Respect | Old |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
My heart craves to praise Thee, But I am unable. Would my understanding Were as spacious as Solomon’s. Without it my wisdom As yet ill suffices For expounding Thy wonders And Thy deeds of beneficence Wrought for me and all mankind. Without Thee all’s hopeless, And where is the rock Sustaining, suspending The weight of the world? I am as one orphaned; Nay, on Thee I am cast. What then can I do But look to Thee, wait on Thee, In whose hand is the spirit Of all that is living, In whose hand is the breath Of all the creation?
Awe | Day | Earth | Ecstasy | Faith | God | Lord | Love | Loyalty | Loyalty | Man | Melody | Mission | Peace | People | Purpose | Purpose | Redemption | Reverence | Sacred | Service | Trust | Unique | Vows | Wonder | World | Worship | God | Blessed |
If present and future depend on the past, then present and future should exist in past time If present and future do not exist in it, how can present and future exist in dependence on it? The establishment of the two does not occur without dependence on the past, Therefore, present and future time do not exist. By this method the remaining two [times] are to be treated mutatis mutandis. One should examine the top, bottom, and middle, etc., and the oneness, etc. Non-abiding time is not perceived, and abiding time does not occur; How can imperceptible time be designated? If time depends on an entity, where is there time without an entity? No entity exists, so where would time exist?
Cause | Experience | Loyalty | Loyalty | Pride | Reason | Privilege | Value |
Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
Some people live an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference in the world, Marines don't have that problem.
Distinguish | Patriotism | War |
It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control ... The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no danger of their making use of their Power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them.
Applause | Authority | Individual | Loyalty | Loyalty | Mistake | Object | Success |
We ask for State legislation, and we are told to go to the Federal Government; we come to the Federal Government and it is contended that these things rightfully belong to the States. It does not make a particle of difference. If we come here to the Federal Government and ask for remedial legislation, we are told that these things will come when they become a custom, and not by legislation. And then we go to employers, to their companies, and ask them to confer with us in order to inaugurate that custom, and they tell us, If you do not get out of here we will put a boot in the place where it will feel uncomfortable. If we strike or ask that the matter be submitted to arbitration, we are told there is nothing to arbitrate. If we strike in order to enforce what we believe to be our rights, we are enjoined; and if we exercise what we believe to be our rights in spite of the injunction, we are guilty of contempt of court and are put in the jug during his honor's pleasure. There is not anywhere we can go for the purpose of trying to bring about some remedy, some change, some improvement but we are met by the same opposition, prompted by the same cause, prompted by the same motive, and that is to leave the workingman helpless to the mercy of the employing class. I think, though, I may say that that time has gone by. The workingmen of our country have learned somewhat of their rights, and they propose to stand by them, and they have the courage to do so, too.
People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault.
Greatness | Patriotism | Pride | Wants |
The generality of mankind is lazy. What distinguishes men of genuine achievement from the rest of us is not so much their intellectual powers and aptitudes as their curiosity, their energy, their fullest use of their potentialities. Nobody really knows how smart or talented he is until he finds the incentives to use himself to the fullest. God has given us more than we know what to do with.
Arrogance | Patriotism |
There is a certain kind of morality which is even more alien to good and evil than amorality is.
Arthur Conan Doyle, fully Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle
My instincts are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me. It is no compliment to a man. Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand.
Yet I also appreciate that we cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well—for we will not fight to save what we do not love (but only appreciate in some abstract sense). So let them all continue—the films, the books, the television programs, the zoos, the little half acre of ecological preserve in any community, the primary school lessons, the museum demonstrations, even […] the 6:00 A.M. bird walks. Let them continue and expand because we must have visceral contact in order to love. We really must make room for nature in our hearts.
Dignity | Excellence | Inspiration | Patriotism | Survival | Teach | Excellence |
Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.
Duty | Important | Love | Man | Patriotism | Respect | Right | Rights | Friendship | Respect |
Each nation has its own pet sins to which it is merciful, and also sins which it treats as most abhorrent. In America, we are peculiarly sensitive about big money contributions for which the donors expect any reward. In England, where in some ways the standard is higher than here, such contributions are accepted as a matter of course, nay, as one of the methods by which wealthy men obtain peerages. It would be well-nigh an impossibility for a man to secure a seat in the United States Senate by mere campaign contributions, in the way that seats in the British House of Lords have often been secured without any scandal being caused thereby.