This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.
Joseph de Maistre, fully Joseph-Marie, comte de Maistre
In the whole vast dome of living nature there reigns an open violence. A kind of prescriptive fury which arms all the creatures to their common doom: as soon as you leave the inanimate kingdom you find the decree of violent death inscribed on the very frontiers of life. You feel it already in the vegetable kingdom: from the great catalpa to the humblest herb, how many plants die and how many are killed; but, from the moment you enter the animal kingdom, this law is suddenly in the most dreadful evidence. A Power, a violence, at once hidden and palpable. . . has in each species appointed a certain number of animals to devour the others. . . And who [in this general carnage] exterminates him who will exterminate all others? Himself. It is man who is charged with the slaughter of man. . . The whole earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but a vast altar upon which all that is living must be sacrificed without end, without measure, without pause, until the consummation of things, until evil is extinct, until the death of death.
Death | Evil | Exterminate | Fury | Law | Man | Nature | Nothing | Will |
Lin-chi, also Lin-chi Yi-sen, Lin-chi I-hsuan, Rinzai, Rinzai Gigen, Linji, Línjì Yìxuán NULL
Many students come to see me from all over the place. Many of them are not free from their entanglement with objective things. I treat them right on the spot. If their trouble is due to grasping hands, I strike there. If their trouble is a loose mouth, I strike them there. If their trouble is hidden behind their eyes, it is there I strike. So far I have not found anyone who can set himself free. This is because they have all been caught up in the useless ways of the old masters. As for me, I do not have one only method which I give to everyone, but I relieve whatever the trouble is and set men free.
Luther Standing Bear, aka Ota Kte or Mochunozhin
There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unkown, secret place.
M. C. Swabey, fully Marie Taylor Collins Swabey
While it may not heighten our sympathy, wit widens our horizons by its flashes, revealing remote hidden affiliations and drawing laughter from far afield; humor, in contrast, strikes up fellow feeling, and though it does not leap so much across time and space, enriches our insight into the universal in familiar things, lending it a local habitation and a name.
There is a part of a child's soul that has always been unknown but which must be known. With a spirit of sacrifice and enthusiasm we must go in search like those who travel to foreign lands and tear up mountains in their search for hidden gold. This is what the adults must do who seeks the unknown factor that lies hidden in the depths of a child's soul. This is a labor in which all must share, without distinction of nation, race, or social standing since it means the bringing forth of an indispensable element for the moral progress of mankind.
Distinction | Enthusiasm | Indispensable | Labor | Means | Progress | Sacrifice | Search | Soul | Spirit |
Marguerite De Valois, or Margaret of Valois, Marguerite de France
The more hidden the venom, the more dangerous it is.
Maxim Gorky, pen name of Alexei Maximovich Peshkov
You can't do without philosophy, since everything has its hidden meaning which we must know.
Meaning |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
Knowledge of the intellect alone is on the same footing as mere information; and, being superficial, it moves on the surface of life. It gives the shadow and not the substance of reality. The hidden depths of the ocean of life can be gauged only by the plumber of the heart.
Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets.
Study |
He (the Shaman) is a self-reliant explorer of the endless mansions of a magnificent hidden universe.
Thought does exist, both beyond and underneath systems and edifices of discourse. It is something that is often hidden but always drives everyday behaviors. There is always a little thought occurring even in the most stupid institutions; there is always thought even in silent habits. Criticism consists in uncovering that thought and trying to change it: showing that things are not as obvious as people believe, making it so that what is taken for granted is no longer taken for granted. To practise criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy... [A]s soon as people begin to no longer be able to think things the way they have been thinking them, transformation becomes at the same time very urgent, very difficult and entirely possible.
Change | Criticism | Little | People | Thinking | Thought | Time | Think | Thought |
Your past is hidden in your silence, now - in your speech, and the future - in your false steps.
Milton Friedman, fully John Milton Friedman
As it has become politically less attractive to vote higher taxes to pay for higher spending, legislators have resorted to financing spending though inflation, a hidden tax that can be imposed without having been voted, taxation without representation.
Mitch Albom, fully Mitchell David "Mitch" Albom
People say they ‘find’ love,as if it were an object hidden by a rock.But love takes many forms, and it is never the same for any man and woman. what people find then is a certain love.And Eddie found a certain love with Margurate,a grateful love,deep but quite love,one that he knew,above all else ,was irreplaceable.Once she’d gone,he’d let the days go stale.He put his heart to sleep.
Mohamed Iqbal or Sir Muhammad Iqbal, aka Allama Iqbal
I am a hidden meaning made to defy. The grasp of words, and walk away With free will and destiny. As living, revolutionary clay.
Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life. Breathe in and let yourself soar to the ends of the universe; breathe out and bring the cosmos back inside. Next, breathe up all fecundity and vibrancy of the earth. Finally, blend the breath of heaven and the breath of earth with your own, becoming the Breath of Life itself.
The Path of Peace is exceedingly vast, reflecting the grand design of the hidden and manifest worlds. A warrior is a living shrine of the divine, one who serves that grand purpose.