This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"From all these facts there emerges a very simple abstract program for the teacher to follow in keeping the attention of the child: Begin with the line of his native interests, and offer him objects that have some immediate connection with these." - William James
"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you." - William James
"O my Bergson, you are a magician, and your book is a marvel, a real wonder in the history of philosophy . . . In finishing it I found . . . such a flavor of persistent euphony, as of a rich river that never foamed or ran thin, but steadily and firmly proceeded with its banks full to the brim." - William James
"Religion is nothing if it be not the vital act by which the entire mind seeks to save itself by clinging to the principle from which it draws its life. This act is prayer, by which term I understand no vain exercise of words, no mere repetition of certain sacred formula, but the very movement itself of the soul, putting itself in a personal relation of contact with the mysterious power of which it feels the presence -- it may be even before it has a name by which to call it." - William James
"Spiritual energy flows in and produces effects in the phenomenal world." - William James
"We need only in cold blood to act as if the thing in question were real and it will infallibly end by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real." - William James
"Wisdom is learning what to overlook." - William James
"High fortune makes both our virtues and vices stand out as objects that are brought clearly to view by the light." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
"It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
"We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
"If wives suppress not contempt for husbands, then it follows that such wives rebuke and scold their husbands. If husbands stop not short of anger, then they are certain to beat their wives. The correct relationship between husband and wife is based upon harmony and intimacy, and conjugal love is grounded in proper union. Should actual blows be dealt, how could matrimonial relationship be preserved? Should sharp words be spoken, how could conjugal love exist? If love and proper relationship both be destroyed, then husband and wife are divided." - Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban
"Rulers who want to unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first victim." - Elias Canetti
"Love of fighting was bred in the blood of the race because those who did not love fighting were not suited to their environment and perished." - Elihu Root
"For you who no longer possess it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion." - Emil M. Cioran
"To exist is equivalent to an act of faith, a protest against the truth, an interminable prayer. As soon as they consent to live, the unbeliever and the man of faith are fundamentally the same, since both have made the only decision that defines a being." - Emil M. Cioran
"There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics." - Emma Goldman
"Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul." - Ernest Dimnet
"Today no matter where I'm going, no matter what I'm doing, no matter who I'm doing it with, it is my dominant intent to look for and find things that feel good when I see them, when I hear them, when I smell them, when I taste them, when I touch them." - Ester and Jerry Hicks
"Eroticism resides in the ambiguous space between anxiety and fascination." - Esther Perel
"In vain would outward objects solicit the senses, the mind would never have any knowledge of them, if it did not perceive them. Hence the first and smallest degree of knowledge is perception." - Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
"The whole tribe of philosophers have fallen into the fame error with Locke. Some of them, who pretend that every perception leaves an image in the mind, in the same manner almost as a seal leaves its impression behind it, are not to be excepted: for what is the image of a perception, which is not the perception itself? The mistake is owing to this, that for want of having sufficiently considered the matter, they have mistaken, for the very perception of the object, some circumstances, or some general idea, which revive themselves in its stead. To avoid such mistakes, I shall here distinguish the different perceptions we are capable of feeling, and examine them each in their proper order." - Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
"When words were become the most natural signs of our ideas, the necessity of arranging them in an order so contrary to that which at present prevails, was no longer the fame. And yet they continued to do it, because the character of languages, having been framed from this necessity, did not permit any change. to be made in this custom; neither did they begin to draw near to our manner of conceiving, till after a long succession of idioms." - Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
"The aversion has less of flexibility that the desire, c ' is a strength defensive, a resistance that protects the individual." - Étienne Pivert de Senancour
"Instead of asking, “Why does this happen Why do I feel left in the lurch” we can ask “How does it happen that there are people who sing with such confidence, ‘God’s strong name is our help’”" - Eugene Peterson
"You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true." - Eugene Peterson