This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"The Grumbler is one who, when his friend has sent him a present from his table, will say to the bearer, ‘You grudged me my soup and my poor wine, or you would have asked me to dinner.’" - Theophrastus NULL
"An opinion prevails that there is no longer any distinction, that the republicans and Federalists are completely amalgamated but it is not so. The amalgamation is of name only, not of principle. All indeed call themselves by the name of Republicans, because that of Federalists was extinguished in the battle of New Orleans. But the truth is that finding that monarchy is a desperate wish in this country, they rally to the point which they think next best, a consolidated government. Their aim is now therefore to break down the rights reserved by the constitution to the states as a bulwark against that consolidation, the fear of which produced the whole of the opposition to the constitution at its birth. Hence new Republicans in Congress, preaching the doctrines of the old Federalists, and the new nick-names of Ultras and Radicals. But I trust they will fail under the new, as the old name, and that the friends of the real constitution and union will prevail against consolidation, as they have done against monarchism. I scarcely know myself which is most to be deprecated, a consolidation, or dissolution of the states. The horrors of both are beyond the reach of human foresight." - Thomas Jefferson
"Justice is the fundamental law of society." - Thomas Jefferson
"The prophecy of a world moving toward political unity is the light which guides all that is best, most vigorous, most truly alive in the work of our time. It gives sense to what we are doing. Nothing else does." - Walter Lippmann
"Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another; they might also ask themselves how much poetry of any period they can honestly say that they understand." - W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
"Man … always acts either self-loving, just for the hell of it, or God-loving, just for the heaven of it; his reasons, his appetites are secondary motivations. Man chooses either life or death, but he chooses; everything he does, from going to the toilet to mathematical speculation, is an act of religious worship, either of God or of himself." - W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
"Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him." - Vladimir Nabokov, fully Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
"The fate of a nation has often depended on the good or bad digestion of a prime minister." - Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL
"All our emotions and thoughts are conditioned reflexes, reactions." - Vimala Thakar
"Anyone who’s worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm." - Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
"Insight into the two selves within a man clears up many confusions and contradictions. It was our understanding that preceded our victory." - Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
"To break all links seems to be the instinct of some wretched families." - Victor Hugo
"The heavens have stood, the earth has stood, all creatures have stood. The mountains have stood upon their foundation, the horses in the stable I have caused to stand." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda
"It was cold and clammy in the stone cell; they called it the cooler, and used it to reduce the temperature of the violent and intractable. It was a trouble-saving device; they just left the man there and forgot him, and his own tormented mind did the rest." - Upton Sinclair, fully Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr.
"There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
"Our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do." - William James
"Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment; insinuating the most galling satire under the phraseology of panegyric; placing its victim naked on a bed of briers and thistles, thinly covered with rose-leaves; adorning his brow with a crown of gold, which burns into his brain; teasing and fretting, and riddling him through and through, with incessant discharges of hot shot from a masked battery; laying bare the most sensitive and shrinking nerves of his mind, and then blandly touching them with ice, or smilingly pricking them with needles." - Edwin Percy Whipple
"True wisdom, indeed, springs from the wide brain which is fed from the deep heart; and it is only when age warms its withering conceptions at the memory of its youthful fire, when it makes experience serve aspiration, and knowledge illumine the difficult paths through which thoughts thread their way into facts,--it is only then that age becomes broadly and nobly wise." - Edwin Percy Whipple
"All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it." - Edwin Way Teale
"Thus far, women have been the mere echoes of men. Our laws and constitutions, our creeds and codes, and the customs of social life are all of masculine origin. The true woman is as yet a dream of the future." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"Truth is the only safe ground to stand upon." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"A god of kindness would be charitable to all. Your god of wrath and punishment is but a monstrous phantasy... It is not necessary that one should humble oneself to deserve assistance, it is sufficient that one should suffer." - Emile Zola
"I shouldn’t care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do! Will you forget me - will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say, twenty years hence, “That’s the grave of Catherine Earnshaw. I loved her long ago, and was wretched to lose her; but it is past. I’ve loved many others since - my children are dearer to me than she was, and, at death, I shall not rejoice that I am going to her, I shall be sorry that I must leave them!†Will you say so, Heathcliff?" - Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell
"The Grumbler is one who, when his friend has sent him a present from his table, will say to the bearer, ‘You grudged me my soup and my poor wine, or you would have asked me to dinner.’" - Theophrastus NULL
"An opinion prevails that there is no longer any distinction, that the republicans and Federalists are completely amalgamated but it is not so. The amalgamation is of name only, not of principle. All indeed call themselves by the name of Republicans, because that of Federalists was extinguished in the battle of New Orleans. But the truth is that finding that monarchy is a desperate wish in this country, they rally to the point which they think next best, a consolidated government. Their aim is now therefore to break down the rights reserved by the constitution to the states as a bulwark against that consolidation, the fear of which produced the whole of the opposition to the constitution at its birth. Hence new Republicans in Congress, preaching the doctrines of the old Federalists, and the new nick-names of Ultras and Radicals. But I trust they will fail under the new, as the old name, and that the friends of the real constitution and union will prevail against consolidation, as they have done against monarchism. I scarcely know myself which is most to be deprecated, a consolidation, or dissolution of the states. The horrors of both are beyond the reach of human foresight." - Thomas Jefferson
"Justice is the fundamental law of society." - Thomas Jefferson
"The prophecy of a world moving toward political unity is the light which guides all that is best, most vigorous, most truly alive in the work of our time. It gives sense to what we are doing. Nothing else does." - Walter Lippmann
"Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another; they might also ask themselves how much poetry of any period they can honestly say that they understand." - W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
"Man … always acts either self-loving, just for the hell of it, or God-loving, just for the heaven of it; his reasons, his appetites are secondary motivations. Man chooses either life or death, but he chooses; everything he does, from going to the toilet to mathematical speculation, is an act of religious worship, either of God or of himself." - W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
"Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him." - Vladimir Nabokov, fully Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
"The fate of a nation has often depended on the good or bad digestion of a prime minister." - Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL
"All our emotions and thoughts are conditioned reflexes, reactions." - Vimala Thakar
"Anyone who’s worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm." - Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
"Insight into the two selves within a man clears up many confusions and contradictions. It was our understanding that preceded our victory." - Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
"To break all links seems to be the instinct of some wretched families." - Victor Hugo
"The heavens have stood, the earth has stood, all creatures have stood. The mountains have stood upon their foundation, the horses in the stable I have caused to stand." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda
"It was cold and clammy in the stone cell; they called it the cooler, and used it to reduce the temperature of the violent and intractable. It was a trouble-saving device; they just left the man there and forgot him, and his own tormented mind did the rest." - Upton Sinclair, fully Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr.
"There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
"Our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do." - William James
"Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment; insinuating the most galling satire under the phraseology of panegyric; placing its victim naked on a bed of briers and thistles, thinly covered with rose-leaves; adorning his brow with a crown of gold, which burns into his brain; teasing and fretting, and riddling him through and through, with incessant discharges of hot shot from a masked battery; laying bare the most sensitive and shrinking nerves of his mind, and then blandly touching them with ice, or smilingly pricking them with needles." - Edwin Percy Whipple
"True wisdom, indeed, springs from the wide brain which is fed from the deep heart; and it is only when age warms its withering conceptions at the memory of its youthful fire, when it makes experience serve aspiration, and knowledge illumine the difficult paths through which thoughts thread their way into facts,--it is only then that age becomes broadly and nobly wise." - Edwin Percy Whipple
"All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it." - Edwin Way Teale
"Thus far, women have been the mere echoes of men. Our laws and constitutions, our creeds and codes, and the customs of social life are all of masculine origin. The true woman is as yet a dream of the future." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"Truth is the only safe ground to stand upon." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"A god of kindness would be charitable to all. Your god of wrath and punishment is but a monstrous phantasy... It is not necessary that one should humble oneself to deserve assistance, it is sufficient that one should suffer." - Emile Zola
"I shouldn’t care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do! Will you forget me - will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say, twenty years hence, “That’s the grave of Catherine Earnshaw. I loved her long ago, and was wretched to lose her; but it is past. I’ve loved many others since - my children are dearer to me than she was, and, at death, I shall not rejoice that I am going to her, I shall be sorry that I must leave them!†Will you say so, Heathcliff?" - Emily Brontë, fully Emily Jane Brontë, aka pseudonym Ellis Bell