This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"O cursed ambition, thou devouring bird, how dost thou from the field of honesty pick every grain of profit or delight, and mock the reaper's toil!" - William Havard
"The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers." - William James
"Lo, the lovers unloved that draw nigh for your blessing! For your tale makes the dreaming whereby yet they live the dreams of the day with their hopes of redressing, the dreams of the night with the kisses they give, the dreams of the dawn wherein death and hope strive." - William Morris
"You just come along with me and have a good time. The Galaxy's a fun place. You'll need to have this fish in your ear." - Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams
"O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well." - William Shakespeare
"O powerful love, that in some respects makes a beast a man, in some other, a man a beast." - William Shakespeare
"O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her ! And be her sense but as a monument." - William Shakespeare
"And there was no Camelot now -- now that no Queen was there, all white and gold, under an oaktree with another sunlight sifting itself in silence on her glory through the dark leaves above her where she sat, smiling at what she feared, and fearing least what most there was to fear." - Edwin Arlington Robinson
"Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal,—There where the vines cling crimson on the wall,— And in the twilight wait for what will come. The wind will moan, the leaves will whisper some,—Whisper of her, and strike you as they fall; but go, and if you trust her she will call. Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal— Luke Havergal. No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies To rift the fiery night that ’s in your eyes; but there, where western glooms are gathering, the dark will end the dark, if anything: God slays Himself with every leaf that flies, and hell is more than half of paradise." - Edwin Arlington Robinson
"The instruments perform their respective functions, prompted by mutual sympathy. The purpose of the Self (purusha) is the sole cause; by nothing else is any instrument activated." - Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL
"Good faith is the foundation of right. In everything let there be good faith, for if the lord and the vassal keep faith with one another, what cannot be accomplished? If the lord and the vassal do not keep faith with each other, everything will end in failure." - Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya
"Even on this festive day, when all are seeking butterflies and flowers, you and you alone can see what feelings hide within my heart." - Sei Shōnagon
"It was a clear, moonlit night a little after the tenth of the Eighth Month. Her Majesty, who was residing in the Empress's Office, sat by the edge of the veranda while Ukon no Naishi played the flute for her. The other ladies in attendance sat together, talking and laughing; but I stayed by myself, leaning against one of the pillars between the main hall and the veranda. 'Why so silent?' said Her Majesty. 'Say something. It is sad when you do not speak.' 'I am gazing at the autumn moon,' I replied. 'Ah yes,' she remarked. 'That is just what you should have said." - Sei Shōnagon
"SAMPSON: My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee. GREGORY: How! turn thy back and run? SAMPSON: Fear me not. Gregory: No, marry; I fear thee!" - William Shakespeare
"Since the affairs of men rest still incertain, let's reason with the worst that may befall." - William Shakespeare
"Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, the death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast. Macbeth, Act ii, Scene 2" - William Shakespeare
"Stay, my lord, And let your reason with your choler question What 'tis you go about: to climb steep hills Requires slow pace at first: anger is like A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way, Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England Can advise me like you: be to yourself As you would to your friend." -
"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t, you will leak away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray when you’re in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments." - Elizabeth Gilbert
"This was not my moment to be seeking romance and (as day follows night) to further complicate my already knotty life. This was my moment to look for the kind of healing and peace that can only come from solitude." - Elizabeth Gilbert
"The tyrant should take heed to what he doth, since every victim-carrion turns to use, and drives a chariot, like a god made wroth, against each piled injustice." - Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"Think, in mounting higher, the angels would press on us, and aspire to drop some golden orb of perfect song Into our deep, dear silence." - Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"With tears and laughter for all time!" - Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"Embrace truth as it is revealed to-day by human reason." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"The millions of women who have had abortions do not regard them as a victory. For most they were failures — whether of contraception or relationships — accompanied by mixed feelings of regret and relief." - Ellen Goodman
"'Tis better to plumb the depths of unity than forever scratch the surface of variety." - Emile Zola
"But for base men it is indeed possible to withhold belief from strong proofs ; but do thou learn as the pledges of our Muse bid thee, and lay open her word to the very core." - Empedocles NULL
"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." - English Proverbs
"An Englishman's home is his castle." - English Proverbs
"Movies are immortal art - the first new art since Greek drama." - Eric Allen Johnston
"At this display the elder and less attractive of the maidens fled, uttering loud and continuous cries of apprehension in order to conceal the direction of her flight." - Ernest Bramah, born Ernest Brammah Smith
"If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy. But since I am not, I do not care." - Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway
"It was dark now as it becomes dark quickly after the sun sets in September. He lay against the worn wood of the bow and rested all that he could. The first stars were out. He did not know the name of Rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have all his distant friends. 'The fish is my friend too,' he said aloud. 'I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars." - Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway
"You can either read something many times in order to be assured that you got it all, or else you can define your purpose and use techniques which will assure that you have met it and gotten what you need." - E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
"Our ideas are transformed sensations." - Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
"You seem disappointed that I am not more responsive to your interest in spiritual direction. Actually, I am more than a little ambivalent about the term, particularly in the ways it is being used so loosely without any sense of knowledge of the church's traditions in these matters." - Eugene Peterson
"For a moment I lost myself, actually lost my life. I was set free! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life . . . to life itself. I caught a glimpse of something greater than myself." - Eugene O'Neill, fully Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
"The public is always relieved to find that once the chief officers of state are elected they do not sincerely want change." - Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
"From the Tower falls the sound of bronze: the show goes on between drums argue that the glory of the districts." - Eugenio Montale
"Today's today. Tomorrow we may be ourselves gone down the drain of Eternity." - Euripedes NULL
"I associate going to an airport with work because I travel so much with my job. So when I have a few days free from work, I tend to stay at home." - Evelyn Glennie, fully Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie
"The trouble with modern education is you never know how ignorant people are. With anyone over fifty you can be fairly confident what's been taught and what's been left out. But these young people have such an intelligent, knowledgeable surface, and then the crust suddenly breaks and you look down into depths of confusion you didn't know existed." - Evelyn Waugh, fully Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh
"A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations." - Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound
"We think of women at every age: while still children, we fondle with a na‹ve sensuality the breasts of those grown-up girls kissing us and cuddling us in their arms; at the age of ten, we dream of love; at fifteen, love comes along; at sixty, it is still with us, and if dead men in their tombs have any thought in their heads, it is how to make their way underground to the nearby grave, lift the shroud of the dear departed women, and mingle with her in her sleep" - Gustave Flaubert
"A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable." - H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken
"It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry." - H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken
"[It's] difficult to engage people in politics when they believe that what really matters is where they personally stand." - Ivan Krastev
"Western man is schizophrenic." - J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly
"If human beings could be propagated by cutting, like apple trees, aristocracy would be biologically sound." - J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane