This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus and his love Thisbe, very tragical mirth— merry and tragical? Tedious and brief? That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow! A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act v, Scene 1
All plum'd like estridges, that with the wind; baited like eagles having lately bath'd; glittering in golden coats, like images; as full of spirit as the month of May, and gorgeous as the sun at midsummer; wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. I saw young Harry, with his beaver on, his cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm’d, rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury, and vaulted with such ease into his seat, as if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds, to turn and wind a fiery Pegasus. King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
And where two raging fires meet together; they do consume the thing that feeds their fury. Though little fire grows great with little wind, yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all. Taming of the Shrew, Act ii, Scene 1
Gentleness | Pity | Will | Forgive |
Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time, Ere humane stature purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. The time has been That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end. But now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools. This is more strange Than such a murder is. Macbeth (Macbeth at III, iv)
But yet,-- I do not like but yet, it does allay the good precedence; fye upon but yet; but yet is as a gaoler to bring forth some monstrous malefactor.
Pity |
But mistress, know yourself; down on your knees, and thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love: for I must tell you friendly in your ear, — Sell while you can; you are not for all markets. As You Like It, Act iii, Scene 5
O devil, devil! If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
She dying, as it must be so maintained, Upon the instant that she was accused, Shall be lamented, pitied, and excused Of every hearer; for it so falls out That what we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost, Why, then we rack the value, then we find The virtue that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours.
Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter, dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty, beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; as much as child e'er loved, or father found, a love that makes breath poor and speech unable.
Behavior | Cause | Children | Contempt | Counsel | Desire | Duty | Father | Fear | Friend | Good | Grace | Heaven | Honor | Love | Marriage | Mind | Obedience | Pity | Pleasure | Right | Sacred | Time | Wife | Will | Wise | Wit | Woman | Friendship | Counsel | Friends |
Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A worthless woman! mere cold clay as all false things are! but so fair, she takes the breath of men away who gaze upon her unaware: I would not play her larcenous tricks to have her looks!
Pity |
Ellen Key, fully Ellen Karolina Sofia Key
A great poet has seldom sung of lawfully wedded happiness, but of free and secret love; and in this respect, too the time is coming when there will no longer be one standard of morality for poetry and another for life. To anyone tender of conscience, the ties formed by a free connection are stronger than the legal ones.
Life | Life | Little | Passion | Pity | Time | Tragedy | Youth | Youth |
Emil G. Hirsch, fully Emil Gustav Hirsch
In the common sense of the word, Judaism is not a religion, it is not a system of dogmas, of sacramental grace; it is not a bundle of rites and ceremonies; it is not a road to happiness in the hereafter; it is not a scheme of salvation from original sin; it does neither stand nor fall with our views as to the character of those books we call sacred, and as to their authorship. But it is a message to the world that righteousness must be its own reward, and is of that force which builds the world and shapes the courses of men.
Agnostic | Belief | Charity | God | Man | Mercy | Need | Pity | Thinkers | God | Agnostic |
What is that one crucifixion compared to the daily kind any insomniac endures?