This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"The human species... capacity for good is infinite, since they can, they desire, make room within themselves for divine Reality. But at the same time their capacity for evil is, not indeed infinite (since evil is always ultimately self-destructive and therefore temporary), but uniquely great. Hell is total separation from God, and the devil is the will to that separation... To be diabolic on the grand scale, one must, like Milton’s Satan, exhibit in a high degree all the moral virtues, except only charity and wisdom." - Aldous Leonard Huxley
"The disposition to give a cup of cold water to a disciple is a far nobler property than the finest intellect. Satan has a fine intellect, but not the image of God." - William Dean Howells
"Think nothing too little seek for the cross in the daily incidents of life, look for the cross in everything. Nothing is too little which relates to man's salvation, nor is there anything too little in which either to please God or to serve Satan." - Nathan Marsh Pusey
"The continuous and widespread fragmentation of the church has been the scandal of the ages. It has been Satan’s master strategy. The sin of disunity probably has caused more souls to be lost than all other sins combined." - Paul Billheimer
"Time well employed is Satan’s deadliest foe; it leaves no opening for the lurking fiend." - Ella Wheeler Wilcox
"War and Christianity are incompatible; you cannot conquer war by war; cast our Satan by Satan; or do the enormous evil of war that good may come of it." - Norman Thomas, fully Norman Mattoon Thomas
"God and Satan alike are essentially human figures, the one a projection of ourselves, the other of our enemies." - Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
"The belief that man is an irresolute creature pulled this way and that by two forces of equal strength, alternately winning and losing the battle for his soul; the conviction that human life is nothing more than an uncertain struggle between heaven and hell; the faith in two opposed entities, Satan and Christ - all this was bound to engender those internal discords in which the soul, excited by the incessant fighting, stimulated as it were by the constant promises and threats, ends up by giving in and prostitutes itself to whichever of the two combatants has been more obstinate in its pursuit." - Joris-Karl "J.K." Huysmans, pseudonym for Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans
"There are two ways of ridding ourselves of a thing which burdens us, casting it away or letting it fall. To cast away requires an effort of which we may not be capable, to let fall imposes no labour, is simpler, without peril, within reach of all. To cast away, again, implies a certain interest, a certain animation, even a certain fear; to let fall is absolute indifference, absolute contempt; believe me, use this method, and Satan will flee." - Joris-Karl "J.K." Huysmans, pseudonym for Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans
"To wage war within oneself is Islam; the real fight is an inner one. To dispel evil qualities, evil thoughts, and the differences that lead to separations is Islam. To wage war upon jealousy, envy, and vengeance is Islam. To cut out and discard the qualities of Satan and to fill ourselves with the qualities of Allah is Islam. To show a heart full of love to our brothers and sisters is the wealth of Islam." - Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
"Temptations at first are like Elijah's cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, but if we give way to them they will soon overspread the whole soul. Satan nestles himself when we dwell upon the thoughts of sin; we cannot prevent the sudden risings of sin, but by grace we may keep them down, and they should never long remain without opposition. Let us labor therefore as much as we can to be in good company, and run in a good course, for as the Holy Ghost works by these advantages, so we should wisely observe and improve them." - Richard Sibbes (or Sibbs)
"He was the freeman whom the truth made free; Who first of all, the bands of Satan broke; Who broke the bands of sin, and for his soul, In spite of fools consulted seriously. " - Robert Pollok
"There's courage involved if you want to become truth." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"There is nothing which even Satan fears so much as prayer that is offered during vigilance at night. And even if it is offered with distraction, it does not return empty, unless perhaps that which is asked for is unsuitable." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
"This is the fruit of humility. And once a person has become humble, straightaway mercy encircles and embraces him; and once mercy has approached, immediately his heart becomes aware of God helping him. Then his heart is filled with faith, and from this he understands that prayer is the haven of help, the fountain of salvation, a treasury of assurance, a saving anchor in time of storm, a source of recovery at times of sickness, a staff for the weak, a shelter in time of trials, an illumination to those in darkness. [paraphrased]" - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
"Until we find love, our labor is in the land of tares, and in the midst of tares we both sow and reap, even if our seed is the seed of righteousness." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
"I feared them so little, that the terrors, which until now oppressed me, quitted me altogether; and though I saw them occasionally, — I shall speak of this by and by, — I was never again afraid of them — on the contrary, they seemed to be afraid of me. I found myself endowed with a certain authority over them, given me by the Lord of all, so that I cared no more for them than for flies. They seem to be such cowards; for their strength fails them at the sight of any one who despises them. These enemies have not the courage to assail any but those whom they see ready to give in to them, or when God permits them to do so, for the greater good of His servants, whom they may try and torment." - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL
"May it please our Lord that I be not one of these; and may His Majesty give me grace to take that for peace which is really peace, that for honor which is really honor, and that for delight which is really a delight. Let me never mistake one thing for another — and then I snap my fingers at all the devils, for they shall be afraid of me. I do not understand those terrors which make us cry out, Satan, Satan! when we may say, God, God! and make Satan tremble. Do we not know that he cannot stir without the permission of God? What does it mean? I am really much more afraid of those people who have so great a fear of the devil, than I am of the devil himself. Satan can do me no harm whatever, but they can trouble me very much, particularly if they be confessors. I have spent some years of such great anxiety, that even now I am amazed that I was able to bear it. Blessed be our Lord, who has so effectually helped me!" - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL
"Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us." - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL
"She becomes brutally aware of her insignificance and realizes how little we would be able to do to help ourselves if the Beloved ever decided to abandon us." - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL
"It is less injury to Him to deny His being, than to deny the purity of it; the one makes Him no God, the other a deformed, unlovely, and a detestable God. He that saith God is not holy speaks much worse that he that saith there is no God at all." - Stephen Charnock
"Natural men desire to know God and some part of his will and law, not out of a sense of their practical excellency, but a natural thirst after knowledge: and if they have a delight, it is in the act of knowing, not in the object known, not in the duties that stream from that knowledge; they design the furnishing their understandings, not the quickening their affections,—like idle boys that strike fire, not to warm themselves by the heat, but sport themselves with sparks; whereas a gracious soul accounts not only his meditation, or the operations of his soul about God and His will, to be sweet, but he hath a joy in the object of that meditation. Many have the knowledge of God, who have no delight in him or his will." - Stephen Charnock
"Returning he proclaims by many a grace, by shrugs and strange contortions of his face, how much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home." - William Cowper
"The reality cuts across our minds like a wound whose edges crave to heal, but cannot. Thus, one of the great sins, perhaps the great sin, is to say: It will heal; it has healed; there is no wound. There is nothing more important than this wound." - Whittaker Chambers, born Jay Vivian Chambers, aka Jay David Whittaker Chambers
"All those snug junketings and public gormandizings, for which the ancient magistrates were equally famous with their modern successors." - Washington Irving
"The deer and the dachshund are one. Well, the gods grow out of the weather. The people grow out of the weather; the gods grow out of the people. Encore, encore, encore les dieux." - Wallace Stevens
"To place the universe on your side means: To be aware of cosmic forces already with you, which need to be awakened, revealed, put to practical use. To realize that the placing of these forces on your own side is the same as putting yourself on your own side, for a mind divided against itself cannot stand. To admit to a power above our own humanness, which we refuses to do whenever we meet events with resistance, instead of understanding." - Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
"Dad, as a good American, believed his newspapers." - Upton Sinclair, fully Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr.
"In the twilight, it was a vision of power." - Upton Sinclair, fully Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr.
"It propelled a zephyr of clean forest air past her nose, an invisible vapour that sang to her of the pad of the tigers paw upon dry leaves, upon fallen parrot nests and dark madras moss." - Tom Robbins, fully Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins
"It is no proof of a man's understanding to be able to confirm whatever he pleases; but to be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false, this is the mark and character of intelligence." - Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg
"They DO live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface, change, and frivolous external things. I could fancy a love for life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever in any love of a year's standing." - Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell
"Winter is not here yet. There’s a little flower, up yonder, the last bud from the multitude of bluebells that clouded those turf steps in July with a lilac mist. Will you clamber up and pluck it to show papa?" - Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell
"You must forgive me, for I struggled only for you." - Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell
"Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any earthly possession. As a United States citizen I believe it is guaranteed in our heaven-inspired Constitution." - Ezra Taft Benson
"The devil knows that if the elders of Israel should ever wake up, they could step forth and help preserve freedom and extend the gospel. Therefore the devil has concentrated, and to a large extent successfully, in neutralizing much of the priesthood. He has reduced them to Sleeping Giants." - Ezra Taft Benson