This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Return, O Power of the Pentecost, return to Thy people! Shed down Thy flame on many heads! To us, as to our fathers and to those of the old time before them, give fullness of grace! Without Thee we can do nothing; but filled with the Holy Ghost, the excellency of the power will be of Thee, O God! and not of us.
Presumption has many forms; and it is worth considering, whether a great and good Being would most disapprove the presumption which expected too much from His goodness, or the presumption which dared positively to disbelieve His promise.
Day |
The Captain approached him coolly and deliberately. “You will prosecute no one now, you bloody informer”, said he; “you will convict no more boys for taking an ould rusty gun an’ pistol from you, or for giving you a neighbourly knock or two into the bargain.” Just then from a window opposite him, proceeded the shrieks of a woman who appeared at it with the infant in her arms. She herself was almost scorched to death; but with the presence of mind and humanity of her sex, she was about to thrust the little babe out of the window. The Captain noticed this, and with characteristic atrocity, thrust, with a sharp bayonet, the little innocent, along with the person who endeavoured to rescue it, into the red flames, where they both perished. This was the work of an instant.
Error | Fear | Language | Means | People | Present | Ridicule | Sense | Will |
When nations grow old the arts grow cold and commerce settles on every tree.
Be you in what line of life you may, it will be amongst your misfortunes if you have not time properly to attend to pecuniary (monetary) matters. Want of attention to these matters has impeded the progress of science and of genius itself.
When was public virtue to be found where private was not? Can he love the whole who loves no part? He be a nation's friend, who is, in truth, the friend of no man there? Who slights the charities for whose dear sake, that country, if at all, must be beloved?
Wilkie Collins, fully William Wilkie Collins
Yes! the books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill! The only years of my life that I can look back on with something like pride... Early and late, through the long winter nights and the quiet summer days, I drank at the fountain of knowledge, and never wearied of the draught.
Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather
On the farm the weather was the great fact, and men's affairs went on underneath it, as the streams creep under the ice.
Envy | Existence | Individual | Jealousy | Life | Life | Light | People | Unhappiness |
Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather
They ravaged neither the rivers nor the forest, and if they irrigated, they took as little water as would serve their needs. The land and all that it bore they treated with consideration; not attempting to improve it, they never desecrated it.
Envy | Existence | Individual | Jealousy | Life | Life | Light | Unhappiness |
Whittaker Chambers, born Jay Vivian Chambers, aka Jay David Whittaker Chambers
Other ages have had their individual traitors -- men who from faint-heartedness or hope of gain sold out their causes. But in the 20th century, for the first time, man banded together by millions, in movements like Fascism and Communism, dedicated to the purpose of betraying the institutions they lived under. In the 20th century, treason became a vocation whose modern form was specifically the treason of ideas.
Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.
Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love if you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean but I shall be good health to you nonetheless and filter and fibre your blood.
Argument | Custom | God | Knowledge | Little | Men | Mind | Music | Peace | Promise | Spirit | God |
Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
The city fireman-the fire that suddenly bursts forth in the close-pack'd square, the arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble stepping and daring, the strong command through the fire-trumpets, the falling in line, the rise and fall of the arms forcing the water, the slender, spasmic, blue-white jets-the bringing to bear of the hooks and ladders, and their execution, the crash and cut away of connecting wood-work, or through floors, if the fire smolders under them, the crowd with their lit faces, watching-the glare and dense shadows.
Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
I never could explain why I love anybody, or anything.
Mind |
To say nothing of its holiness or authority, the Bible contains more specimens of genius and taste than any other volume in existence.
Man |
A woman is more considerate in affairs of love than a man; because love is more the study and business of her life.
The very difference of character in marriage produces a harmonious combination.