This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Saint Maximus the Confessor NULL
It is said that the highest state of prayer is reached when the intellect goes beyond the flesh and the world, and while praying is utterly free from matter and form. He who maintains this state has truly attained unceasing prayer.”
Distinguish | Fighting | God | Hate | Important | Labor | Practice | Sin | Strength | Struggle | Virtue | Virtue | Weakness | Wickedness | God | Learn | Think |
Saint Ambrose, born Aurelius Ambrosius NULL
For this reason David, as a pilgrim, hastens to this common fatherland of all saints, seeking, on account of the uncleanness of this dwelling, that his sins be forgiven before he departs this life. For whoever has not received forgiveness of sins here will not be there. He will not be there because he will not be able to come to eternal life, because eternal life is the forgiveness of sins.
Desire | Foresight | Grace | Hope | Love | Strength | Teach | Think |
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
The soul goes about the things of God with much greater freedom and satisfaction of the soul than before it entered the dark night of sense. It now very readily finds in its spirit the most serene and loving contemplation and spiritual sweetness without the labor of meditation. This sweetness overflows into their senses more than was usual… since the sense is now purer. But they also endure many frailties and sufferings and weaknesses of the stomach and are fatigued in spirit. After the second night of the spirit: no raptures and no torments of the body because their senses are now neither clouded nor transported.
Death | Desire | Eternal | Life | Life | Love | Memory | Mind | Occupation | Perfection | Pleasure | Refinement | Soul | Strength | Understanding | Will | Old |
O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.
Art | Comfort | Day | Desire | Effort | Friend | Good | Health | Joy | Life | Life | Love | Nature | Strength | Trust | World | Art | Think |
I had one brother almost of my own age, whom I loved best... We used to read the lives of the Saints together. And when I read of the martyrdoms which they suffered for the love of God, I used to think that they had bought their entry into God's presence very cheaply. Then I fervently longed to die like them, not out of any conscious love for Him, but in order to attain, as quickly as they had, those joys which, as I read, are laid up in Heaven. I used to discuss with my brother ways and means of becoming martyrs, and we agreed to go together to the land of the Moors, begging our way for the love of God, so that we might be beheaded there. I believe that our Lord had given us courage enough even at that tender age, if only we could have seen a way. But our parents seemed to us a very great hindrance.
Authority | Courage | God | Good | Lord | Strength | God | Afraid |
Sallust, full name Carus Valerius Sailustius Crispus NULL
The blessings of health and fortune, as they have a beginning, so they must also have an end. Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.
It seems to me that the best way will be the one that is most gentle and forbearing, which is more in conformity with the Spirit of Our Lord and more apt to win hearts.
Day | Distrust | Good | Grace | Heart | Hope | Joy | Munificence | Peace | Prayer | Reason | Receive | Regard | Soul | Strength | Time | Trust | Will | Work |
Sam Ervin, fully Samuel James "Sam" Ervin, Jr.
For too long the issue of government aid to church related organizations has been a divisive force in our society and in the Congress. It has erected communication barriers among our religions and fostered intolerance.
Consequences | Force | Men | Serenity | Strength |
Against us we find arrayed a host guarded by special privilege, buttressed by legalized trusts, fed by streams of legalized monopolists, picketed by gangs of legalized Pinkertons, and having in reserve thousands of embryo employers who, under the name of Militia, are organized, uniformed, and armed for the sole purpose of holding the discontented in subservient bondage to iniquitous conditions.
Competition | Endurance | Law | Method | Object | Society | Strength | Society | Trial |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Fanatical religion driven to a certain point is almost as bad as none at all, but not quite.
If, in all this civilization, and if, in all the wealth produced, if in all this great fertile country of ours . . . we assert first, that wherever and whenever there be one human soul in our country walking the streets unable to find the opportunity to perform work and service to society, to demand in return for it the decent livelihood with opportunities for the cultivation of the best that is in us, if there is that opportunity denied to any one single man or woman in all this country, to him or to her all our boasted civilization is a sham.
Better | Dawn | Day | Labor | Man | Need | Strength | Time | Wants | Will | Work | Afraid | Friends | Old |