This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke
FALLING STARS: Do you remember still the falling stars that like swift horses through the heavens raced and suddenly leaped across the hurdles of our wishes -- do you recall? And we did make so many! For there were countless numbers of stars: each time we looked above we were astounded by the swiftness of their daring play, while in our hearts we felt safe and secure watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate, knowing somehow we had survived their fall.
Rachel Carson, fully Rachel Louise Carson
The public must decide whether it wishes to continue.
Richard Bach, fully Richard David Bach
In spite of my study, I have learned. Every grand religion begins in light. Yet only hearts hold light. Pages cannot. I have paper in my hands. Give these words to the world and they will be loved and understood by those who already know their truth. The truth doesn't burn. The truth waits for anyone who wishes to find it
Luck is always waiting for something to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and strong will, always turns up something. Luck lies in bed and wishes the postman will bring news of a legacy. Labor turns out at six o'clock and with busy pen or ringing hammer, lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines. Labor whistles. Luck relies on chance, labor on character.
Richard L. Evans, fully Richard Louis Evans
Perhaps most of us feel that we could accept death for ourselves and for those we love if it did not often seem to come with such untimeliness. But we rebel when it so little considers our wishes or our readiness. But we may well ask ourselves when would we be willing to part with or to part from those we love? And who is there among us whose judgment we would trust to measure out our lives? Such decisions would be terrible for mere men to make. But fortunately we are spared making them; fortunately they are made by wisdom higher than ours. And when death makes its visitations among us, inconsolable grief and rebellious bitterness should have no place. There must be no quarrel with irrevocable facts. Even when death comes by events which seem unnecessary and avoidable. We must learn to accept what we cannot help.
Bitterness | Death | Events | Grief | Judgment | Little | Love | Men | Trust | Wisdom | Wishes | Learn |
If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed.
Wishes |
Roger Schutz, aka Frère Roger, Brother Roger of Taize, baptised Roger Louis Schütz-Marsauche
The more a believer wishes to live the absolute call of God, the more essential it is to do so in the heart of human distress.
Into My Own - One of my wishes is that those dark trees, So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze, Were not, as ’twere, the merest mask of gloom, But stretched away unto the edge of doom. I should not be withheld but that some day Into their vastness I should steal away, Fearless of ever finding open land, Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand. I do not see why I should e’er turn back, Or those should not set forth upon my track To overtake me, who should miss me here And long to know if still I held them dear. They would not find me changed from him they knew— Only more sure of all I thought was true.
Margaret Fuller, fully Sara Margaret Fuller, Marchese Ossoli
Thoughts which come at a call Are no better than if they came not at all Neither flower nor fruit, Yielding no root For plant, shrub, or tree. I prize thy gentle heart, Free from ambition, falsehood, or art, And thy good mind, Daily refined, By pure desire To fan the heaven-seeking fire.
Day | Destiny | Earth | Eternal | God | Hunger | Joy | Life | Life | Light | Love | Man | Nature | Need | Nothing | Prayer | Thought | Truth | Wealth | Wishes | God | Old | Think | Thought |
Samuel Griswold Goodrich, better known by pseudonymn Peter Parley
Perseverance gives power to weakness, and opens to poverty the world's wealth. It spreads fertility over the barren landscape, and buds the choicest flowers and fruits spring up and flourish in the desert abode of thorns and briars.
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
If an experience fails to engender humility, charity, mortification, holy simplicity, and silence, etc., of what value is it? In this faith God supernaturally and secretly teaches the soul and, in a way unknown to it, raises it up in virtues and gifts. When together with the words and concepts the soul is loving God and simultaneously experiencing this love with humility and reverence, there is indication that the Holy Spirit is at work within it. Whenever He bestows favors, He clothes them with this love.
Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL
The secret consciousness of duty well performed; the public voice of praise that honors virtue, and rewards it; all these are yours.
Children | Eternal | Father | Hate | Life | Life | Lord | Mother | Receive | Rule | Wife | Will | Wishes |
Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL
And let us refer all good to the most high and supreme lord God, and acknowledge that every good is His, and thank Him for everything, from Whom all good things come. And may He, the Highest and Supreme, Who alone is true God, have and be given and receive every honor and reverence, every praise and blessing, every thanks and glory, for every good is His, He Who alone is good.
Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL
And let all the brothers, both the ministers and servants as well as the others, take care not to be disturbed or angered at the sin or the evil of another, because the devil wishes to destroy many through the fault of one; but they should spiritually help [that one] who has sinned as best they can, because it is not the healthy who are in need of the physician, but those who are sick (Mk. 2:17).
Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL
Those who do not wish to taste how sweet the Lord is and love the darkness rather than the light (Jn. 3:19), not wishing to fulfill the commands of God, are cursed: of them the prophet says: They are cursed who stray from your commands (Ps. 118:21). But Oh, how happy and blessed are those who love God and do as the Lord Himself says in the Gospel: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:37, 39).
Fear | Humility | Little | Lord | Love | Peace | Pride | Prudence | Prudence | Religion | Reward | Spirit | Wisdom | Wishes | World |
Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
The passions are like dogs accustomed to lick blood in butchers' shops. When these are barred from what their habit feeds on, they stand in front of the doors and howl until the force of their previous custom is spent.
The person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.
Good | Love | Man | Wishes | Friendship |
Saki, pen name for Hector Hugh Munro or H.H. Munro NULL
I always say beauty is only sin deep.