This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Joris-Karl "J.K." Huysmans, pseudonym for Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans
The belief that man is an irresolute creature pulled this way and that by two forces of equal strength, alternately winning and losing the battle for his soul; the conviction that human life is nothing more than an uncertain struggle between heaven and hell; the faith in two opposed entities, Satan and Christ - all this was bound to engender those internal discords in which the soul, excited by the incessant fighting, stimulated as it were by the constant promises and threats, ends up by giving in and prostitutes itself to whichever of the two combatants has been more obstinate in its pursuit.
Battle | Belief | Ends | Faith | Giving | Heaven | Life | Life | Man | Nothing | Satan | Struggle | Winning |
Jacob Bohme, or Jacob Behmen or Jakob Böhme
A man’s heaven exists for him not outside of himself. If heaven is in him, then will he be in heaven, wherever he may be. Heaven is throughout the whole world and outside of it; it is nothing but a manifestation of the Eternal One.
Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh NULL
In reality, everything is within; the outer is just a projection. Fear is within you; it is projected as a hell. Hell is just a projected image on the screen -- of the fear that is within you, of the anger, of the jealousy, of all that is poisonous in you, of all that is evil in you. Heaven is, again, a projected image on the screen -- of all that is good and beautiful, of all that is blissful within you.
Jean Paul, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, aka Jean Paul Richter
Whoever can turn his weeping eyes to heaven has lost nothing; for there, above, is everything he an wish for here below. He only is a loser, who persists in looking down on the narrow plains of the present time.
Jerome K. Jerome, fully Jerome Klapka Jerome
We want everything. All the happiness that earth and heaven are capable of bestowing. Creature comforts, and heart and soul comforts also; and, proud-spirited beings that we are, we will not be put off with a part. Give us only everything, and we will be content.
If heaven is our country, what is the earth but a place of exile? If the departure out of the world is but an entrance into life, what is the world but a sepulchre? What is a continuance in it but an absorption in death?
John Newton, fully John Henry Newton
Too many show, in this respect, that they are dead while they live; dead to God, insensible and regardless of their many obligations to him, in whom they live, and move, and have their being. They live without prayer; they offer no praises to the God of their lives, but rise up and lie down, go out and come in, without one reflection on his power, goodness, and providence; even like the beasts that perish. But the awakened soul cannot do so. He trembles to think that he once could neglect that God whom all the hosts of heaven worship; and is convinced, that however fair his character might have been amongst men, he justly deserved to have been struck to hell.
Character | God | Heaven | Neglect | Reflection | Soul | God | Think |
José Bergamin, fully José Bergamín Gutiérrez
The man who spends all his time looking up to heaven is not always the best; in fact, he is usually the worst.
The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience.
Eternity | Experience | Heaven | Right |
Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled, their courage dwells not in a troubled flood of mounting spirits, and fermenting blood: Lodged in the soul, with virtue overruled, inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled,in hours of peace content to be unknown. And only in the field of battle shown: To souls like these, in mutual friendship joined, Heaven dares intrust the cause of humankind.
Battle | Cause | Courage | Heaven | Peace | Reason | Virtue | Virtue | Friendship |
As we read the school reports on our children, we realize a sense of relief that can rise to delight that thank Heaven nobody is reporting in this fashion on us.
Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland
The sweetest type of heaven is home - nay, heaven is the home for whose acquisition we are to strive the most strongly. Home, in one form and another, is the great object of life. It stands at the end of every day’s labor, and beckons us to its bosom; and life would be cheerless and meaningless, did we not discern across the river that divides us from the life beyond, glimpses of the pleasant mansion prepared for us.
Ken Wilber, fully Kenneth Earl Wilber II
'What's my philosophy? In a word, integral. And what on earth — or in heaven — do I mean by "integral"? The dictionary meaning is fairly simple: "comprehensive, balanced, inclusive, essential for completeness." Short definition, tall order.
Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
It is the Way of Heaven to take from those who have too much, and give to those who have too little. By the way of man is not so. He takes away from those who have too little, to add to his own superabundance.
Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
There was something formlessly fashioned, that existed before heaven and earth; without sound, without substance, dependent on nothing, unchanging, all-pervading, unfailing. One may think of it as the mother of all things under heaven.
Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, The more he gives to others, the more he gets himself. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, fully Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton
Ah, what without a heaven would be even love! A perpetual terror of the separation that must one day come.