This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
For my part I know nothing with any certainty but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
Vince Lombardi, fully Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi
Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.
Day |
Vine Deloria, fully Vine Victor Deloria, Jr.
Never has America lost a war ... But name, if you can, the last peace the United States won. Victory yes, but this country has never made a successful peace because peace requires exchanging ideas, concepts, thoughts, and recognizing the fact that two distinct systems of life can exist together without conflict. Consider how quickly America seems to be facing its allies of one war as new enemies.
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
To believe in God for me is to feel that there is a God, not a dead one, or a stuffed one, but a living one, who with irresistible force urges us towards more loving.
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
The best way to know life is to love many things.
Dreams | Perfection |
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed. Indeed life is a have to defend and protect ourselves, and with a cheerful and brace spirit we must battle; we plan and calculate in order to make progress.
Harmony |
Vincent van Gogh, fully Vincent Willem van Gogh
To save a life is a real and beautiful thing. To make a home for the homeless, yes, it is a thing that must be good; whatever the world may say, it cannot be wrong.
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
His wife was crying, and he felt nothing; only each time she sobbed in this profound, this silent, this hopeless way, he descended another step into the pit.
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
Our friends, how seldom visited, how little known — it is true; and yet, when I meet an unknown person, and try to break off, here at this table, what I call “my life”, it is not one life that I look back upon; I am not one person; I am many people; I do not altogether know who I am — Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda, or Louis; or how to distinguish my life from theirs.
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
Straightening himself and stealthily fingering his pocket-knife he started after her to follow this woman, this excitement, which seemed even with its back turned to shed on him a light which connected them, which singled him out, as if the random uproar of the traffic had whispered through hallowed hands his name, not Peter, but his private name which he called himself in his own thoughts.
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
What was that? What did that mean? Are things they could put forth his hand, so, and get bumpy, knife blade can cut? Fist to grab? There is no safety? No possibility to memorize ways of life? No guidance, no shelter, it was a miracle, jumping from the top of a peak in space? Could this be life, even for older people? Surprising, unexpected, unknown? For a moment had the impression that if both would be up here, now, on the lawn, and would require an explanation, why is life so short, why is so inexplicable, if and would formulate questions vehemently, as would be entitled to two human beings do better steel, to which nothing should be hidden, then beauty would unfold, would fill the vacuum, those vain were arabesques together in a form, if the two of them would scream loud enough Mrs. Ramsay would return. Mrs. Ramsay! shouted. Mrs. Ramsay! Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Harmony |
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
There's just this… an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined.
Art | Better | Books | Criticism | Enough | Future | History | Hope | Means | Money | Past | Philosophy | Poetry | Research | Thought | Will | Art | Thought |
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
Who shall blame him? Who will not secretly rejoice when the hero puts his armour off, and halts by the window and gazes at his wife and son, who, very distant at first, gradually come closer and closer, till lips and book and head are clearly before him, though still lovely and unfamiliar from the intensity of his isolation and the waste of ages and the perishing of the stars, and finally putting his pipe in his pocket and bending his magnificent head before her—who will blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world?
Darkness | Perception | Perfection |
And whatever he did, he always fell back onto this paradox at the core of his thought. To remain in paradise and become a demon! To re-enter hell and become an angel!