This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Let us consider man the first moment of his existence; his mind immediately feels different sensations; such as light, colors, pain, pleasure, motion, rest: these arc his first thoughts.
Perseverance does not mean “perfection.” It means we do not quit when we find that we are not yet mature and there is a long journey still before us.
Each day the storm clouds were opening like great purple flowers and pouring out their dark thunder. Each nightfall, the storm was laid down on their houses like a burden the day had carried.
The silence that makes it possible to hear God speak also makes it possible for us to hear the world's words for what they really are - tinny and unconvincing lies.
Eugene O'Neill, fully Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
But I know that I shall find surcease, the rest my spirit craves,
Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs
Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like all other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation. The Illinois Central Railroad Company selected the site upon which the city is built and this consisted of a vast miasmatic swamp far better suited to mosquito culture than for human beings. From the day the site was chosen by (and of course in the interest of all) said railway company, everything that entered into the building of the town and the development of the city was determined purely from profit considerations and without the remotest concern for the health and comfort of the human beings who were to live there, especially those who had to do all the labor and produce all the wealth.
Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
WeÂ’re the most captive nation of slaves that ever came along. The moral timidity of the average American is quite noticeable. EverybodyÂ’s afraid to be thought in any way different from everyone else.
Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs
Wherever capitalism appears, in pursuit of its mission of exploitation, there will Socialism, fertilized by misery, watered by tears, and vitalized by agitation be also found, unfurling its class-struggle banner and proclaiming its mission of emancipation.
Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
Howard's eyes were open and very clear. I'd forgotten what a beautiful gray they were--illness and medicine had regularly glazed them over; now they were bright and attentive, and he was watching me, consciously, through long lashes. Lungs, heart may have stopped but the optic nerves were still sending messages to a brain which, those who should know tell us, does not immediately shut down. So we stared at each other at the end... 'Can you hear me?' I asked him. 'I know you can see me.' Although there was no breath for speech, he now had a sort of wry wiseguy from the Bronx expression on his face which said clearly to me who knew all his expressions, 'So this is the big fucking deal everyone goes on about.
Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s. “We have a single system," he wrote, and “in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses.
Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs
With faith and hope and courage we hold our heads erect and with dauntless spirit marshal the working class for the march from Capitalism to Socialism, from Slavery to Freedom, from Barbarism to Civilization.
Courage | Hell | History | Labor | Men | Need | Spirit | Struggle | Time | Will | World | Writing |
Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs
In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.
Brotherhood | Cause | History | Time | Will |
Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
If the splitter of hairs has a sharp enough knife, the fact of life itself can be chopped into nothing.
Men | Model | Time | Wonder | Understand |
Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs
They are distorted, deformed, hideous mentally and morally. Their trade is treason, their breath is pollution and yet the officials of the C.B.&Q. formed a conspiracy with these professional liars, perjurers, cut-throats and murderers to overcome a strike, the result of a policy of flagrant injustice.
Duty | Government | Talking | Time | War | Government |
Eugene McCarthy, fully Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty
Time |
Eugene McCarthy, fully Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
Time |
Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
Life will be wonderful when men no longer fear dying. When the last superstitions are thrown out and we meet death with the same equanimity as life. No longer will children's minds be twisted by evil gods whose fantastic origin is in those barbaric tribes who feared death and lightning, who feared life. That's it: life is the villain to to those who preach reward in death, through grace and eternal bliss, or through dark revenge.