This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Auto de Fe: An act of faith. A dainty feast offered to the Divinity from time to time, and which consisted of roasting, in great pomp, the bodies of Jews or heretics for the salvation of their souls and the edification of the lookers-on." - Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL
"At college, more than anywhere else, one was likely to make the friendships that supported one through life." - Vera Mary Brittain
"Let us now some nobler things! [marks the transition in a text to a more important subject]" - Virgil, also Vergil, fully Publius Vergilius Maro NULL
"Romans, never forget that government is your medium! Be this your art:-to practice men in habit of peace, generosity to the conquered, and firmness against aggressors." - Virgil, also Vergil, fully Publius Vergilius Maro NULL
"Trying to command life without studying one's own mind is like trying to play the piano without studying music." - Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
"A man can sustain himself without food for few days but he cannot live without water for a single day." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda
"A year ago, we all were united in the joy over having broken free of totalitarianism. Today we all are made somewhat nervous by the burden of freedom. Our society is still in a state of shock. This shock could have been expected, but none of us expected it to be so profound. The old system collapsed, and a new one so far has not been built. Our social life is marked by a subliminal uncertainty over what kind of system we are going to build, how to build it, and whether we are able to build it at all." - Václav Havel
"Today I would like to thank from my heart all those of you who have trusted me, sympathized with me or in any way supported me. Without your understanding and goodwill I would not have been able to stay in office for even a few moments. I appreciate your support all the more for the fact that I did not try at all costs to obtain it. I frequently even took what was clearly a minority position and so reaped more opposition than recognition. Sometimes I may have been mistaken in this but I would like to assure you of one thing: I have always tried to abide by the dictates of the authority under which I took my oath of office — the dictates of the best of my awareness and conscience." - Václav Havel
"Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?" - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
"There may be many truths among men than errors." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
"We despise a lot of things for us not to despise ourselves." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
"Women and young people develop their separate estimates of their tastes." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
"You must maintain strength of body in order to preserve strength of mind." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
"The greater part of the city is built upon a high hill, which rises from an extensive plain, but several of its circles extend for some distance beyond the base of the hill, which is of such a size that the diameter of the city is upward of two miles, so that its circumference becomes about seven. On account of the humped shape of the mountain, however, the diameter of the city is really more than if it were built on a plain." - Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella
"To say nothing of the divine law, on mere worldly grounds it is plain that nothing is more conducive to the health, intelligence, comfort, and independence of the working classes, and to our prosperity as a people, than our Sabbath." - Tryon Edwards
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas J. Watson, fully Thomas John Watson, Sr.
"The Golden Straitjacket is the defining political-economic garment of globalization. […] The tighter you wear it, the more gold it produces." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman
"I am not one of those who believe that a great standing army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession, those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession." - Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson
"The person who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it." - Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson
"On the whole, however, the conclusions I have drawn from the proofs quoted may, I believe, safely be relied on. Assuredly they will not be disturbed either by the lays of a poet displaying the exaggeration of his craft, or by the compositions of the chroniclers that are attractive at truth's expense; the subjects they treat of being out of the reach of evidence, and time having robbed most of them of historical value by enthroning them in the region of legend." - Thucydides NULL
"When drinking water, think about the source." - Tibetan Proverbs
"A good man acts with a vigor, and suffers with a patience, more than human, when he believes himself countenanced by the Almighty." - Hugh Blair
"My life is not merely a public phenomenon, it is a solitary adventure as well." - Tom Robbins, fully Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins
"In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher." - Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso NULL
"The possibility of morality thus depends on the possibility of liberty; for if man be not a free agent, he is not the author of his actions, and has, therefore, no responsibility - no moral personality at all." - William Hamilton, fully Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet
"As Charles Lamb says, there is nothing so nice as doing good by stealth and being found out by accident, so I now say it is even nicer to make heroic decisions and to be prevented by 'circumstances beyond your control' from ever trying to execute them." - William James
"Few of us are not in some way infirm, or even diseased; and our very infirmities help us unexpectedly." - William James
"Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species." - William James
"Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power" - William James
"All outward power that we exercise in the things about us is but a shadow in comparison of that inward power that resides in our will, imagination, and desires; these communicate with eternity and kindle a life which always reaches either Heaven or hell... Here lies the ground of the great efficacy of prayer, which when it is the prayer of the heart, the prayer of faith, has a kindling and creating power, and forms and transforms the soul into everything that the desire reaches after: it has the key to the Kingdom of Heaven and unlocks all its treasures; it opens, extends and moves that in us which has its being and motion in and with the divine nature. and so it brings us into real union and Communion with God." - William Law
"The progress of these terrors is plainly shown us in our Lord's agony in the garden, when the reality of this eternal death so broke in upon Him, so awakened and stirred itself in Him, as to force great drops of blood to sweat from His body... His agony was His entrance into the last, eternal terrors of the lost soul, into the real horrors of that dreadful, eternal death which man unredeemed must have died into when he left this world. We are therefore not to consider our Lord's death upon the Cross as only the death of that mortal body which was nailed to it, but we are to look upon Him with wounded hearts, as being fixed and fastened in the state of that twofold death, which was due to the fallen nature, out of which He could not come till He could say, It is finished; Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.." - William Law
"There is no wrath that stands between God and us, but what is awakened in the dark fire of our own fallen nature; and to quench this wrath, and not His own, God gave His only begotten Son to be made man. God has no more wrath in Himself now than He had before the creation, when He had only Himself to love... And it was solely to quench this wrath, awakened in the human soul, that the blood of the Son of God was necessary; because nothing but a life and birth, derived from Him into the human soul, could change this darkened root of a self-tormenting fire into an amiable image of the Holy Trinity as it was at first created." - William Law
"Whilst you are divided betwixt God and the world, you have neither the pleasures of Religion, nor the pleasures of the world, but are always in the uneasiness of a divided state of heart. You have only so much Religion as serves to disquiet you, to show you a handwriting on the wall, to interrupt your pleasures, and to appear as a death's-head at all your feasts, but not Religion enough to give you a taste and feeling of its pleasures. You dare not wholly neglect Religion, but then you take no more than is just sufficient to keep you from being a terror to yourself, and you are as loth to be very good as you are fearful to be very bad." - William Law
"There is a solemn luxury in grief." - William Mason
"Folk say, a wizard to a northern king at Christmas-tide such wondrous things did show, that through one window men beheld the spring, and through another saw the summer glow, and through a third the fruited vines a-row, while still, unheard, but in its wonted way, piped the drear wind of that December day. So with this Earthly Paradise it is, if ye will read aright, and pardon me, who strive to build a shadowy isle of bliss midmost the beating of the steely sea, where tossed about all hearts of men must be; whose ravening monsters mighty men shall slay, not the poor singer of an empty day." - William Morris
"In Prison Wearily, drearily, Half the day long, Flap the great banners High over the stone Strangely and eerily Sounds the wind's song, Bending the banner-poles. While, all alone, watching the loophole's spark, Lie I, with life all dark, Feet tethered, hands fettered Fast to the stone, The grim walls, square lettered With prisoned men's groan. Still strain the banner-poles through the wind's song, westward the banner rolls over my wrong." - William Morris
"Who is this god person anyway?" - Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams
"Fortunes made in no time are like shirts made in no time; it's ten to one if they hang long together." - Douglas William Jerrold
"Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a worrisome malady." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
"There is no art without intention." - Duke Ellington, fully Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
"Now For self-culture nothing equals respect for others. To counteract firmness nothing equals compliance. Consequently it can be said that the Way of respect and acquiescence is woman's most important principle of conduct. So respect may be defined as nothing other than holding on to that which is permanent; and acquiescence nothing other than being liberal and generous. Those who are steadfast in devotion know that they should stay in their proper places; those who are liberal and generous esteem others, and honor and serve chem." - Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban
"Ministers and officials should attend the Court early in the morning and retire late, for the whole day is hardly enough for the accomplishment of state business. If one is late in attending Court, emergencies cannot be met; if officials retire early, the work cannot be completed." - Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya
"The Ministers and officials of the state should make proper behavior their first principle, for if the superiors do not behave properly, the inferiors are disorderly; if inferiors behave improperly, offenses will naturally result. Therefore when lord and vassal behave with propriety, the distinctions of rank are not confused: when the people behave properly the Government will be in good order." - Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya
"Leading a sheltered existence inside a palace, I am not aware of all the going-ons among the people. If there are any matters that cause anguish to the people, you should report them to me without failing." - Sejong the Great, aka King Sejong, family name Yi, given name Do NULL
"The laughter which it creates is impish and devilish, the very mirth of fiends, and its wit the gleam and glare of infernal light." - Edwin Percy Whipple
"Observation of the first kind projects its own light on to things and can, therefore, only touch their surface; all it does is render its objects invisible. That of the second kind projects light into things and makes objects luminous in themselves." - Egon Friedell, born Egon Friedmann
"Language the most forcible proceeds from the man who is most sincere. The way to speak with power, or to write words that pierce mankind to the quick, is to speak and write honestly." - Elias L. Magoon
"Article Five: If you have no reason or ability to accomplish anything, then just practice the art of becoming." - Elif Safak
"Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough." - Elif Safak