This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"We who have been hunted through the rapids of life, torn from our former roots, always driven to the end and obliged to begin again, victims and yet also the willing servants of unknown mysterious powers, we for whom comfort has become an old legend and security, a childish dream, have felt tension from pole to pole of our being, the terror of something always new in every fibre. Every hour of our years was linked to the fate of the world. In sorrow and in joy we have lived through time and history far beyond our own small lives, while they knew nothing beyond themselves. Every one of us, therefore, even the least of the human race, knows a thousand times more about reality today than the wisest of our forebears. But nothing was given to us freely; we paid the price in full." - Stefan Zweig
"And then, as he comes in from the storm to the still room, the climax breaks. A man staggers into the room in oilskins, drenched, wet, breathless. (They all staggered in these plays, and in the new drama they walk, and the effect is feebleness itself.) He points to the sea. “A boat! A boat upon the reef! With a woman in it.”" - Stephen Leacock, fully Stephen Butler Leacock
"Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength." - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
"Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man of my party who attacks with such foul slander and abuse any opponent of any other party." - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
"It is our duty to look to God's commands, and not to His decrees; to our own duty, and not to His purposes. The decrees of God are a vast ocean, into which many possibly have curiously pried to their own horror and despair; but few or none have ever pried into them to their own profit and satisfaction." - Thomas Boston
"God has formed us moral agents... that we may promote the happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by acting honestly towards all, benevolently to those who fall within our way, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and mental, and cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as we value our own." - Thomas Jefferson
"We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves." - Thomas Jefferson
"You and I have formerly seen warm debates and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other and separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives, cross the streets to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats. This may do for young men with whom passion is enjoyment. But it is afflicting to peaceable minds. Tranquility is the old man's milk." - Thomas Jefferson
"It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who he is, and who we are. It is only this realization that can open to us the real nature of our duty, and of right action. To shut out the person and to refuse to consider him as a person, as another self, we resort to the impersonal "law" and to abstract "nature." That is to say we block off the reality of the other, we cut the intercommunication of our nature and his nature, and we consider only our own nature with its rights, its claims, it demands. And we justify the evil we do to our brother because he is no longer a brother, he is merely an adversary, an accused. To restore communication, to see our oneness of nature with him, and to respect his personal rights and his integrity, his worthiness of love, we have to see ourselves as similarly accused along with him... and needing, with him, the ineffable gift of grace and mercy to be saved. Then, instead of pushing him down, trying to climb out by using his head as a stepping-stone for ourselves, we help ourselves to rise by helping him to rise. For when we extend our hand to the enemy who is sinking in the abyss, God reaches out to both of us, for it is He first of all who extends our hand to the enemy. It is He who "saves himself" in the enemy, who makes use of us to recover the lost great which is His image in our enemy." - Thomas Merton
"The dread of being open to the ideas of others generally comes from our hidden insecurity about our own convictions. We fear that we may be converted – or perverted – by a pernicious doctrine. On the other hand, if we are mature and objective in our open-mindedness, we may find that viewing things from a basically different perspective – that of our adversary – we discover our own truth in a new light and are able to understand our own ideal more realistically." - Thomas Merton
"When we live superficially … we are always outside ourselves, never quite ‘with’ ourselves, always divided and pulled in many directions … we find ourselves doing many things that we do not really want to do, saying things we do not really mean, needing things we do not really need, exhausting ourselves for what we secretly realize to be worthless and without meaning in our lives." - Thomas Merton
"It has been the error of schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the Author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles; he can only discover them, and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author." - Thomas Paine
"A Farmhouse on the Wei River - In the slant of the sun on the country-side, Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane; And a rugged old man in a thatch door Leans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herdboy. There are whirring pheasants, full wheat-ears, Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves. And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders, Hail one another familiarly. ...No wonder I long for the simple life And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again." - Wang Wei, aka Wang Youcheng
"Love-Contradictions - As rare to heare as seldome to be seene, It cannot be nor never yet hathe bene That fire should burne with perfecte heate and flame Without some matter for to yealde the same. A straunger case yet true by profe I knowe A man in joy that livethe still in woe: A harder happ who hathe his love at lyste Yet lives in love as he all love had miste: Whoe hathe enougehe, yet thinkes he lives wthout, Lackinge no love yet still he standes in doubte. What discontente to live in suche desyre, To have his will yet ever to requyre." - Edward Dyer, fully Sir Edward Dyer
"If the public only knew that every writer worthy of the name is the severest critic of his own book before it ever gets into the hands of the reviewers, how surprised they would be!" - Wilkie Collins, fully William Wilkie Collins
"You are not to take it, if you please, as the saying of an ignorant man, when I express my opinion that such a book as ROBINSON CRUSOE never was written, and never will be written again. I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—ROBINSON CRUSOE. When I want advice—ROBINSON CRUSOE. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much—ROBINSON CRUSOE. I have worn out six stout ROBINSON CRUSOES with hard work in my service. On my lady's last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and ROBINSON CRUSOE put me right again. Price four shillings and sixpence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain." - Wilkie Collins, fully William Wilkie Collins
"As flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their name and form, thus a wise man, freed from name and form, goes to the divine person who is beyond all." Such a theory of life and death will not please Western man, whose religion is as permeated with individualism as are his political and economic institutions. But it has satisfied the philosophical Hindu mind with astonishing continuity." - Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant
"Perhaps our supercilious disgust with existence is a cover for a secret disgust with ourselves; we have botched and bungled our lives, and we cast the blame upon the environment or the world, which have no tongues to utter a defense. The mature man accepts the natural limitations of life; he does not expect Providence to be prejudiced in his favor; he does not ask for loaded dice to play the game of life. He knows, with Carlyle, that there is no sense in vilifying the sun because it will not light our cigars. And perhaps, if we are clever enough to help it, the sun will even do that; and this vast neutral cosmos may turn out to be a pleasant place enough if we bring a little sunshine of our own to help it out. In truth, the world is neither with us or against us; it is but raw material in our hands, and can be heaven or hell according to what we are." - Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant
"A Democrat never adjourns--he is born, becomes of voting age and starts right in arguing over something, and his political adjournment is his date with the undertaker." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
"Polo, racing and horse shows all are doing great work to help the farmer and rancher to raise better horses." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
"If you love the good thing vitally, enough to give up for it all that one must give up, then you must hate the cheap thing just as hard. I tell you, there is such a thing as creative hate! A contempt that drives you through fire, makes you risk everything and lose everything, makes you a long sight better than you ever knew you could be." - Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather
"Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what's sensible and what's foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody." - Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather
"All of us must act selfishly to Iearn charity, must lie to learn honor, must betray and be betrayed to learn to value trust and commitment." - Willard Gaylen
"The fundamental activity of medical science is to determine the ultimate causation of disease." - Wilfred Trotter, fully Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter
"Don't run. Have the courage to look at yourself!" - Wilhelm Reich
"Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen, till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
"Wisdom is not finally tested in schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof, Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content, Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things; Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
"In my youth I hoped to do great things; now I shall be satisfied to get through without scandal." - Walter Bagehot
"Sight isolates, sound incorporates. Whereas sight situates the observer outside what he views, at a distance, sound pours into the hearer." - Walter J. Ong, fully Walter Jackson Ong
"Truth is a point, the subtlest and finest; harder than adamant; never to be broken, worn away or blunted. Its only bad quality is, that it is sure to hurt those who touch it; and likely to draw blood, perhaps the life blood of those who press earnestly upon it." - Walter Savage Landor
"In a happy reign there should be no hermits; the wise and able should consult together... so you, a man of the eastern mountains, gave up your life of picking herbs and came all the way to the Gate of Gold -- but you found your devotion unavailing. ...To spend the Day of No Fire on one of the southern rivers, you have mended your spring clothes here in these northern cities. I pour you the farewell wine as you set out from the capital -- soon I shall be left behind here by my bosom-friend. In your sail-boat of sweet cinnamon-wood you will float again toward your own thatch door, led along by distant trees to a sunset shining on a far-away town...What though your purpose happened to fail, doubt not that some of us can hear high music." - Wang Wei, aka Wang Youcheng
"This is a rare opportunity and we hope our partners will make friends with as many IOC worldwide partners as possible to learn from their experiences and strategies in marketing, sales and services which are very helpful to the Olympic marketing of the 2008 Games, and we are confident that these experience will become a precious legacy for the Chinese enterprises after 2008." - Wang Wei, aka Wang Youcheng
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his own dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." - Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer
"Tapping into the essence of originating Spirit, emulating the attributes of the creative force of intention, and manifesting into your life anything that you desire that's consistent with the universal mind..." - Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer
"Your thoughts are something that you control and they originate with you." - Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer
"All life requires a rhythm of rest." - Wayne Muller
"A relevant, famous quote from the Tao is "Ruling a country is like frying a small fish". A good chef will tell you that, when frying a fish (especially a small one), if you keep moving the frying pan and flipping the fish, it will fall apart and become tasteless." - Wei Wu Wei, pen name for Terence James Stannus Gray
"And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer." - Wendell Berry
"At the window he sits and looks out, musing on the river, a little brown hen duck paddling upstream among the wind waves close to the far bank. What he has understood lies behind him like a road in the woods. He is a wilderness looking out at the wild." - Wendell Berry
"Give your approval to all you cannot understand. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed." - Wendell Berry
"It was a country . . . that he and his people had known how to use and abuse, but not how to preserve." - Wendell Berry
"The sense of it may come with watching a flock of cedar waxwings eating wild grapes in the top of the woods on a November afternoon. Everything they do is leisurely. They pick the grapes with a curious deliberation comb their feathers, converse in high windy whistles. Now and then one will fly out and back in a sort of dancing flight full of whimsical flutters and turns. They are like farmers loafing in their own fields on Sunday. Though they have no Sundays, their days are full of Sabbaths." - Wendell Berry
"Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the Horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." - William Henley, fully William Ernest Henley
"Seeking world peace is not about peace, it is power and control all under the guise of service to humanity." - W. Brugh Joy, fully William Brugh Joy
"How strange to think that you cannot pass along the discovery." - Walker Percy
"Day after day, throughout the winter, we hardened ourselves to live by bluest reason in a world of wind and frost." - Wallace Stevens
"The houses are haunted by white night-gowns." - Wallace Stevens
"The reading of a poem should be an experience. Its writing must be all the more so." - Wallace Stevens
"A little downy girl still wearing poppies still eating popcorn in the colored gloam where tawny Indians took paid croppers because you stole her from her wax-browed and dignified protector spitting into his heavy-lidded eye ripping his flavid toga and at dawn leaving the hog to roll upon his new discomfort the awfulness of love and violets remorse despair while you took a dull doll to pieces and threw its head away because of all you did because of all I did not you have to die" - Vladimir Nabokov, fully Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov