This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Richard Wagner, fully Wilhelm Richard Wagner
The July Revolution took place; with one bound I became a revolutionist, and acquired the conviction that every decently active being ought to occupy himself with politics exclusively. I was only happy in the company of political writers, and I commenced an Overture upon a political theme. Thus was I minded, when I left school and went to the university: not, indeed, to devote myself to studying for any profession
Happy | Politics | Revolution |
The best security against revolution is in constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements. It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.
Neglect | Revolution | Security |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Who shall reason of Thy greatness? For Thou hast encompassed the sphere of Jupiter with a seventh sphere, And therein revolveth Saturn. And his body is greater than that of the earth ninety-one times by the measure of him, And he completeth his revolution in thirty years of his course, And stirreth up wars, And spoliation and captivity and famine, For such is his appointed task; And devastateth the lands, And rooteth up kingdoms According to the will of Him "Who hath appointed him to His service, Even such strange service."
Body | Earth | Fear | Good | Repentance | Revolution | Righteousness | Words | World |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Who shall attain to Thy exaltation? For Thou hast encompassed the sphere of Saturn with an eighth sphere of encompassment, And it is laden with the twelve constellations On the line of the belt of its ephod, And all the higher stars of cloudland Fixed in its rigidity. And every star of them compasseth its circuit in six and thirty thousand years, From the greatness of its altitude; And the body of each is a hundred and seven times that of the earth, And this is the limit of its greatness. And from the might of these stars Is drawn the strength of all creatures below, Each after its kind, According to the will of the Creator who hath appointed them, And set every one of them in its fit station, And given it its name, "Each man to his service and his station."
Body | Reason | Revolution | Will |
Samora Machel, fully Samora Moisés Machel
The rich man's dog gets more in the way of vaccination, medicine and medical care than do the workers upon whom the rich man's wealth is built.
Fame | Revolution |
Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
It's time we reduced the federal budget and left the family budget alone.
Better | Capacity | Government | History | Little | Mankind | Plan | Revolution | Time | Unique | Government |
Rosa Luxemburg, aka Rosalia Luxemburg, "Bloody Rosa"
Being human means throwing your whole life on the scales of destiny when need be, all the while rejoicing in every sunny day and every beautiful cloud.
Obedience | Revolution | Rule | Understanding |
Rosa Luxemburg, aka Rosalia Luxemburg, "Bloody Rosa"
We will be victorious if we have not forgotten how to learn.
Revolution | Will |
Rosa Luxemburg, aka Rosalia Luxemburg, "Bloody Rosa"
The times when the centre of gravity of political development and the crystallising agent of capitalist contradictions lay on the European continent, are long gone by. To-day Europe is only a link in the tangled chain of international connections and contradictions.
Appearance | Awareness | Destiny | Ideas | Meaning | Omnipotence | Peace | Politics | Proletariat | Revolution | Time | War | World | Awareness |
Rosa Luxemburg, aka Rosalia Luxemburg, "Bloody Rosa"
The masses are in reality their own leaders, dialectically creating their own development process.
Future | Pride | Revolution | Strength | Tomorrow | Will | Leadership |
Rosa Luxemburg, aka Rosalia Luxemburg, "Bloody Rosa"
The modern proletarian class doesn’t carry out its struggle according to a plan set out in some book or theory; the modern workers’ struggle is a part of history, a part of social progress, and in the middle of history, in the middle of progress, in the middle of the fight, we learn how we must fight… That’s exactly what is laudable about it, that’s exactly why this colossal piece of culture, within the modern workers’ movement, is epoch-defining: that the great masses of the working people first forge from their own consciousness, from their own belief, and even from their own understanding the weapons of their own liberation.
Revolution | Will |
Salman Rushdie, fully Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie
The human condition, but what of the angelic? Halfway between Allah-god and homosap, did they ever doubt? They did: challenging God's will one day they hid muttering beneath the Throne, daring to ask forbidden things: anti-questions. Is it right that. Could it not be argued. Freedom, the old antiquest. He calmed them down, naturally, employing management skills a la god. Flattered them: you will be the instruments of my will on earth, the salvation-damnation of man, all the usual etcetera. And hey presto, the end of protest, on with the haloes, back to work. Angels are easily pacified; turn them into instruments and they'll play your harpy tune. Human beings are tougher nuts, can doubt anything, even the evidence of their own eyes. Of being-their-own-eyes. Of what, as they sink heavy-lidded, transpires behind closed peepers ... angels, they don't have much in the way of a will. To will is to disagree; not to submit; to dissent.
History | Life | Life | Progress | Revolution | Thought | Old | Thought |
Sam Ervin, fully Samuel James "Sam" Ervin, Jr.
Every American has the constitutional right not to be taxed or have his tax money expended for the establishment of religion.
Revolution | Right |
If the European discovery had been delayed for a century or two, it is possible that the Aztec in Mexico or the Iroquois in North America would have established strong native states capable of adopting European war tactics and maintaining their independence to this day, as Japan kept her independence from China.
Nothing | Revolution |
No big modern war has been won without preponderant sea power; and, conversely, very few rebellions of maritime provinces have succeeded without acquiring sea power.
Liberty | Revolution |
It is not the cause for which men took up arms that makes a victory more just or less, it is the order that is established when arms have been laid down.
Religion | Revolution |
Simón Bolívar, fully Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco
Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own.
I love these tales because, in more reasonable attributions of motive, they so beautifully embody a fundamental theme of historical explanation - that consequences of substantial import often arise from triggers of entirely different intent. In other words, current utility bears no necessary relationship with historical origin.
Care | Little | Property | Regard | Revolution | Following |
Since the universe must contain millions of appropriate planets, consciousness in some form - but not with the paired eyes and limbs, and the brain built of neurons in the only example we know - may evolve frequently. But if only one origin of life in a million ever leads to consciousness, then Martian bacteria most emphatically do not imply Little Green Men.)
Appearance | Arrogance | Consciousness | Evolution | History | Humanity | Inevitable | Means | Myth | Progress | Revolution | Science | Thinking | Time | Wise |
The enemy is not fundamentalism; it is intolerance. In this case, the intolerance is perverse since it masquerades under the liberal rhetoric of equal time. But mistake it not.
Change | Revolution |