This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
O my God, I know that my sins are too great to tell, And my trespasses too many to remember, Yet as a drop from the sea will I make mention of some, And make confession of them; Perhaps I shall silence the roar of their waves and their crashing, "And Thou wilt hear from heaven and forgive." I have trespassed against Thy law, I have despised Thy commandments, I have abhorred them in my heart, And with my mouth spoken slander. I have committed iniquity, And I have wrought evil, I have been presumptuous, I have done violence, I have plastered over falsehood, I have counselled evil, p. 110 I have lied, I have scoffed, I have revolted, I have blasphemed, I have been rebellious and perverse and sinful, I have stiffened my neck, I have loathed Thy rebukes and done wickedly, I have corrupted my ways, I have strayed from my paths, I have transgressed and turned away from Thy commandments. "But Thou art just in all that is come upon me For Thou hast dealt truly and I have dealt wickedly."
Art | Body | Heart | Lust | Nothing | Poverty | Sin | Soul | Weakness | Art |
John Denham, fully Sir John Denham
'T is in worldly accidents, As in the world itself, where things most distant Meet one another: Thus the east and west, Upon the globe a mathematical point Only divides: Thus happiness and misery, And all extremes, are still contiguous.
I can reveal to you that I wished to die - For with much weeping she left me Saying: "Sappho - what suffering is ours! For it is against my will that I leave you." In answer, I said: "Go, happily remembering me For you know what we shared and pursued - If not, I wish you to see again our [former joys]... The many braids of rose and violet you [wreathed] Around yourself at my side And the many garlands of flowers With which you adorned your soft neck: With royal oils from [fresh flowers] You anointed [ yourself ] And on soft beds fulfilled your longing [For me]
Awakening | Blame | Chance | Compassion | Earth | Enough | Fortune | Fun | Giving | Good | Immortality | Journey | Joy | Kindness | Learning | Man | Mind | Miracles | Need | Pity | Pleasure | Poverty | Pride | Self | Slander | Space | Suffering | Time | Vision | Wealth | Will | World | Slander | Happiness |
Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL
There is no health in those who are displeased by an element in Your creation, just as there was none in me when I was displeased by many things You had made. Because my soul didn't dare to say that my God displeased me, it refused to attribute to You whatever was displeasing.
Desire | Error | Evil | Heart | Law | Pity | Poverty | Shame | Sin | Will |
Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL
Where there is discord may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. Where there is despair, may we bring hope.
Anger | Charity | Enemy | Excess | Fear | Lord | Mercy | Patience | Peace | Poverty | Wisdom |
John Chrysostom, fully Saint John Chrysostom
From this it is that countless evils have arisen - from ignorance of the Scriptures; from this it is that the plague of heresies has broken out; from this it is that there are negligent lives; from this there are labors without advantage. For as men deprived of this daylight would not walk aright, so they that look not to the gleaming of the Holy Scriptures must be frequently and constantly sinning, in that they are walking in the worst darkness.
Money | Philosophy | Poverty | Will |
John Chrysostom, fully Saint John Chrysostom
Teach him to sing those psalms which are so full of love of wisdom; as at once concerning chastity or rather, before all, of not companying with the wicked, immediately with the very beginning of the book; (for therefore also it was that that prophet began on this wise, ‘Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly; Ps. i. I, and again, ‘I have not say in the council of vanity’; and again, ‘in his sight a wicked doer is contemned, but he honoreth those that fear the Lord, of companying the good, (and these subjects thou wilt find there in abundance,) of restraining the belly, of restraining the hand, of refraining from excess, of not overreaching; that money is nothing nor glory, and other things such like...When in these thou hast led him on from childhood, by little and little thou wilt lead him forward even to the higher things. The Psalms contain things, but the Hymns again have nothing human. When he has been instructed out of the Psalms, he will then know hymns also, as a diviner thing.
Better | Friend | Joy | Light | Love | Poverty | Words | Friends |
To argue over who is the more noble is nothing more than to dispute whether dirt is better for making bricks or for making mortar.
My readers at that time were still men of letters; but there had to be other people waiting to read my poems.
Acceptance | Man | Opposition | Poverty | Redemption |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Gayety is to good humor, as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance: the one overpowers weak spirits, the other recreates and revives them.
Daughter | Dependence | Poverty | Will | Parent |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
A man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than to act one; no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance: it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of the pick-ax, or of one impression of the spade with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
He that is much flattered soon learns to flatter himself. - We are commonly taught our duty by fear or shame, but how can they act upon a man who hears nothing but his own praises?
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another.
Inevitable | Poverty |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.