This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
O curse of marriage! That we can call these delicate creatures ours, and not their appetites. I had rather be a toad, and live upon the vapour of a dungeon, than keep a corner in the thing I love for others' uses. Othello, Act iii, Scene 3
Cunning | Enemy | Sin | Temptation | Temptation |
O our lives' sweetness, That we the pain of death would hourly die Rather than die at once!
It may be said that the supreme revelation is to be found in Jesus Christ and that all the rest of the Bible leads up to him. Yet there are two ways of accepting the words and example of Jesus. One is to take what he says as true because he says it, and another is to believe it because it stands the test of reflection and experience. When his way of life has been confirmed by the demands of intelligence and of practical life, it has gained the deepest security and made its strongest claims upon our loyalty.
Association | Change | Divinity | Ideas | Life | Life | Nature | People | Psychology | Sense | Sin | Strength | Association |
There are interests by the sacrifice of which peace is too dearly purchased. One should never be at peace to the shame of his own soul - to the violation of his integrity or of his allegiance to God.
Sin |
Profaneness is a brutal vice. - He who indulges in it is no gentleman. - I care not what his stamp may be in society, or what clothes he wears, or what culture he boasts. - Despite all his refinement, the light and habitual taking of God's name in vain, betrays a coarse and brutal will.
So, of his gentleness, Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me from mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.
Business | Cause | Day | Death | Duty | Father | God | Greatness | Guilt | Law | Life | Life | Man | Men | Peace | Purpose | Purpose | Sin | Soul | Teach | Time | War | Business | God | Guilty | Think |
Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Of all the thoughts of God that are borne inward unto souls afar, along the Psalmist's music deep, now tell me if that any is. For gift or grace, surpassing this-- "He giveth His beloved sleep."
Trust in thine own untried capacity as thou wouldst trust in God himself. Thy soul is but an emanation from the whole. Thou dost not dream what forces lie in thee, vast and unfathomed as the grandest sea.
Sin |
But now I know that there is no killing a thing like Love, for it laughs at Death. There is no hushing, there is no stilling that which is part of your life and breath. You may bury it deep, and leave behind you the land, the people that knew your slain; it will push the sods from its grave, and find you on wastes of water or desert plain.
Each of us must pay for the slightest damage he inflicts upon a universe created for indifference and stagnation, sooner or later, he will regret not having left it intact.
Emil G. Hirsch, fully Emil Gustav Hirsch
The doctrine of man as creator, as I can easily show to such as can think philosophically, necessarily leads to an assumption of a greater creative force immanent in nature. . . . Human life, weak as it is, shadowlike as undoubtedly it is, fleet-footed as it is, gains strength in the thought that the All-life lives and supports the individual life, which is not wiped away as the little ripplets are in the broader stream.
Civilization | Offense | Sin | World |
The Key Of Destiny - There are a few great laws that govern all thinking, just as there are a few fundamental laws in chemistry, in physics, and in mechanics, for example. We know that thought control is the Key of Destiny, and in order to learn thought control we have to know and understand these laws, just as the chemist has to understand the laws of chemistry, and the electrician has to know the laws of electricity. One of the great mental laws is the Law of Substitution. This means that the only way to get rid of a certain thought is to substitute another one for it. You cannot dismiss a thought directly. You can do so only by substituting another one for it. On the physical plane this is not the case. You can drop a book or a stone by simply opening your hand and letting it go; but with thought this will not work. If you want to dismiss a negative thought, the only way to do so is to think of something positive and constructive. It is as though in order, let us say, to drop a pencil, it were necessary to put a pen or a book or a stone into your hand, when the pencil would fall away. If I say to you, "Do not think ofthe Statue of Liberty," of course, you immediately think of it. If you say, "I am not going to think of the Statue of Liberty," that is thinking of it. But now, having thought of it, if you become interested in something else, say, by turning on the radio, you forget all about the Statue of Liberty - and this is a case of substitution. It sometimes happens that negative thoughts seem to besiege you in such force that you cannot overcome them. That is what is called a fit of depression, or a fit of worry, or perhaps even a fit of anger. In such a case the best thing is to go and find someone to talk to on any subject, or to go to a good movie or play, or read an interesting book, say a good novel or biography or travel book, or something of the kind. If you sit down to fight the negative tide you will probably succeed only in amplifying it. Turn your attention to something quite different, refusing steadfastly to think of or rehearse the difficulty, and, later on, after you have completely gotten away from it, you can come back with confidence and handle it by spiritual treatment.
Absolute | Dynamic | Forgiveness | Good | Sense | Sin | Thinking | Tragedy | Truth | Forgiveness |