This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Who troubles others has no rest himself.
Belief | Compassion | Desire | God | Human race | Love | Means | Race | Will | God |
Every year we're spending more than two trillion dollars on healthcare, and yet 100,000 people a year are dying not because of the conditions they have, but because of the treatments that we're giving them.
J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly
In plain words; now that Britain has told the world she has the H-Bomb, she should announce as early as possible that she has done with it, that she proposes to reject, in all circumstances, nuclear warfare. This is not pacifism. There is no suggestion here of abandoning the immediate defence of this island...No, what should be abandoned is the idea of deterrence-by-threat-of-retaliation. There is no real security in it, no decency in it, no faith, hope, nor charity in it.
Earth | Experience | Need | Revolution | Sacred | Will | Value |
J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane
We must, I think, regard the normal death as a feature characteristic of life. Normal death is sometimes regarded as a wearing out of the machinery of life; but it is evidently a quite unsuitable metaphor, since living structure, when we consider it closely, can easily be seen to be constantly renewing itself, so that it cannot be regarded as mere machinery which necessarily wears out. Normal death must apparently be regarded from the biological standpoint as a means by which room is made for further more definite development of life.
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely.
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
And here he was, a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go. It was an evil fate.
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey raincurtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
Democracy is the only game in town. The problem is [when] people start to believe that it is not a game worth playing.
J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly
A lot of men who have accepted - or had imposed upon them in boyhood - the old English public school styles of careful modesty in speech, with much understatement, have behind their masks an appalling and impregnable conceit of themselves.
Beginning | Change | Silence | Understand |
J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly
Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.
Appreciation | Art | Faith | Heart | Life | Life | Meaning | Means | Mind | People | Religion | Appreciation | Art |
J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly
Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries.
Religion |
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
All now took leave of the Lord of the City and went to rest while they still could. Outside there was a starless blackness as Gandalf, with Pippin beside him bearing a small torch, made his way to their lodging. They did not speak until they were behind closed doors. Then at last Pippin took Gandalf's hand. 'Tell me,' he said, 'is there any hope? For Frodo, I mean; or at least mostly for Frodo.' Gandalf put his hand on Pippin's head. 'There never was much hope,' he answered. 'Just a fool's hope, as I have been told. And when I heard of Cirith Ungol--' He broke off and strode to the window, as if his eyes could pierce the night in the East. 'Cirith Ungol!' he muttered. 'Why that way, I wonder?' He turned. 'Just now, Pippin, my heart almost failed me, hearing that name. And yet in truth I believe that the news that Faramir brings has some hope in it. For it seems clear that the Enemy has opened his war at last and made the first move when Frodo was still free. So now for many days he will have his eye turned this way and that, away from his own land. And yet, Pippin, I feel from afar his haste and fear. He has begun sooner than he would. Something has happened to stir him.
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
And still Meriadoc the hobbit stood there blinking through his tears, and no one spoke to him, indeed none seemed to heed him. He brushed away the tears, and stooped to pick up the green shield that Eowyn had given him, and he slung it at his back. Then he looked for his sword that he had let fall; for even as he struck his blow his arm was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand.
Choice | Government | Industry | Labor | Question | Work | Government | Leadership |
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.