This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL
Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.
Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL
As for myself, may the sweet Muses, as Virgil says, bear me away to their holy places where sacred streams do flow, beyond the reach of anxiety and care, and free from the obligation of performing each day some task that goes against the grain. May I no longer have anything to do with the mad racket and the hazards of the forum, or tremble as I try a fall with white-faced Fame. I do not want to be roused from sleep by the clatter of morning callers or by some breathless messenger from the palace; I do not care, in drawing my will, to give a money-pledge for its safe execution through anxiety as to what is to happen afterwards; I wish for no larger estate than I can leave to the heir of my own free choice. Some day or other the last hour will strike also for me, and my prayer is that my effigy may be set up beside my grave, not grim and scowling, but all smiles and garlands, and that no one shall seek to honor my memory either by a motion in the senate or by a petition to the Emperor.
Anxiety | Anxiety | Day | Honor | Memory | Obligation | Prayer | Sacred | Safe | Will |
That possession which we gain by the sword is not lasting; gratitude for benefits eternal.
R. D. Laing, fully Ronald David Laing
True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is.
Guilt | Obligation | People |
Randy Pausch, fully Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch
Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.
Ray Bradbury, fully Ray Douglas Bradbury
The gift of life is so precious that we should feel an obligation to pay back the universe for the gift of being alive.
Life | Life | Obligation | Universe |
It is proper to observe, that even in this sense of our country, that love of it which is our duty, does not imply any conviction of the superior value of it to other countries, or any particular preference of its laws and constitution of government. Were this implied, the love of their country would be the duty of only a very small part of mankind; for there are few countries that enjoy the advantage of laws and governments which deserve to be preferred. To found, therefore, this duty on such a preference, would be to found it on error and delusion. It is however a common delusion. There is the same partiality in countries, to themselves, that there is in individuals. All our attachments should be accompanied, as far as possible, with right opinions. We are too apt to confine wisdom and virtue within the circle of our own acquaintance and party. Our friends, our country, and, in short, everything related to us, we are disposed to overvalue. A wise man will guard himself against this delusion. He will study to think of all things as they are, and not suffer any partial effections to blind his understanding. In other families there may be as much worth as in our own. In other circles of friends there may be as much wisdom; and in other countries as much of all that deserves esteem; but, notwithstanding this, our obligation to love our own families, friends, and country, and to seek, in the first place, their good, will remain the same.
Acquaintance | Duty | Error | Love | Man | Obligation | Partiality | Preference | Right | Sense | Study | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Wisdom | Wise | Worth | Friends | Think | Value |
Pandurang Shastri Athavale, fully Pandurang Vaijnath Shastri Athavale
Expression of Gratitude to the Lord Almighty at these occassions daily; For gift of Memory at dawn, For the gift of Energy at meal times, and for the gift of Peace at night is called Trikal Sandhya.
What obligation is more binding than to protect the cherished, to defend whoever or whatever cannot defend itself, and to nurture in turn that which has given nourishment? I
I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss.
I like long and unusual words, and anybody who does not share my tastes is not compelled to read me. Policemen and politicians are under some obligation to make themselves comprehensible to the intellectually stunted, but not I. Let my prose be tenebrous and rebarbative; let my pennyworth of thought be muffled in gorgeous habilements; lovers of Basic English will look to me in vain.
Obligation | Thought | Will | Thought |
Ron and Mary Hulnick, formally H. Ronald Hulnick and
eight keys or ways you can build a more intimate and mutually fulfilling heart-to-heart relationship: 1. Seek to become a really good heart-centered listener. 2. Share gratitude and heartfelt appreciation. 3. Small kindnesses reap large dividends. 4. Keep your agreements. 5. Take responsibility for your own upset. 6. Celebrate your own and each other's successes. 7. Resist the urge to complain about your partner with your friends or family. 8. Develop and maintain supportive and mutually agreed upon ground rules and guidelines. And now, here are an additional four keys we've found that work wonders: 1. Be willing to give up personal space. 2. Prize your partner. 3. Touch with love. 4. Your job is not to fix, change, manipulate, or control your partner -- your job is to love them.
Control | Good | Gratitude | Love | Responsibility | Work | Friends |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
The seven heavens cannot Thee enfold, Sustained by Thee, they do not Thee sustain. They hymn Thee since Thou madest them of old, And when they perish, Thou shalt still remain, O mighty God! The messengers of heaven Thee revere. They stand to praise Thee in Thine inmost shrine, Yet from beholding Thee they shrink in fear, For how behold the dazzling dread Divine? O Lord, my God! What voice is this that singeth without cease And spends in song to Thee its nights and days? But Thou, omnipotence beyond increase, Art high—I know—uplifted over praise, O Lord, my God! So great Thy majesty and manifold, How canst Thou lodge in tabernacle’s span? Such glory no circumference can hold, For Thou art vastly mightier than man, O Lord, my God! He at whose feet celestial creatures creep A day of liberation will proclaim, And from all corners call his scattered sheep, However sorry-looking they or lame, The Lord, my God!
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, aka Vatican II
There was no need to call a council merely to hold discussions of that nature. What is needed at the present time is a new enthusiasm, a new joy and serenity of mind in the unreserved acceptance by all of the entire Christian faith, without forfeiting that accuracy and precision in its presentation which characterized the proceedings of the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council. What is needed, and what everyone imbued with a truly Christian, Catholic and apostolic spirit craves today, is that this doctrine shall be more widely known, more deeply understood, and more penetrating in its effects on men's moral lives. What is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms. For this deposit of faith, or truths which are contained in our time-honored teaching is one thing; the manner in which these truths are set forth (with their meaning preserved intact) is something else. This, then, is what will require our careful, and perhaps too our patient, consideration. We must work out ways and means of expounding these truths in a manner more consistent with a predominantly pastoral view of the Church's teaching office.
Conduct | Eternal | Life | Life | Men | Mortal | Obligation | Purpose | Purpose | Regard | Right |
Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
This administration is totally colorblind.
Blame | Children | Circumstances | Destroy | Dreams | Extravagance | History | Inevitable | Obligation | Past | Position | Teach | Thrift | Will | Yielding | Learn |
Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
My fellow Americans I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. (Comment while testing a microphone before a broadcast 11 Aug 84)
Belief | Government | Land | Obligation | Rights | Government |
Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner
Where the realm of freedom of thought and action begin, the determination of individuals according to generic laws ends.
Obligation | Words | World |
Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
Were there no men of vision, all who are blind would be dead.