This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
Mateo Alemán, fully Mateo Alemán y de Enero
That poverty which is not the daughter of the spirit is but the mother of shame and reproach; it is a disreputation that drowns all the other good parts that are in man; it is a disposition to all kind of evil; it is a man’s greatest foe.
Character | Daughter | Evil | Good | Man | Mother | Poverty | Shame | Spirit |
In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don't mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably the most dangerous people seek the power. While in the parlors of indignation the right-thinking citizen brings his heart to a boil. In here, the human bosom -- mine, yours, everybody's -- there isn't just one soul. There's a lot of souls. But there are two main ones, the real soul and a pretender soul. Now! Every man realizes that he has to love something or somebody. He feels that he must go outward. 'If thou canst not love, what art thou?' Are you with me?
Art | Character | Heart | Indignation | Love | Man | People | Power | Rest | Soul | Art |
If men would wound you with injuries, meet them with patience: hasty words rankle the wound, soft language, dresses it, forgiveness cures it, and oblivion takes away the scar. It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.
Argument | Character | Forgiveness | Language | Men | Oblivion | Patience | Silence | Words | Forgiveness |
Matsuo Bashō, born Matsuo Kinsaku, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
Having no soul union with other men can be the most damaging wound of all.
Nature thrives on patience; man on impatience.