This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Leonardo da Vinci, fully Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
The earth is not in the centre of the Sun's orbit nor at the centre of the universe, but in the centre of its companion elements, and united with them. And any one standing on the moon, when it and the sun are both beneath us, would see this our earth and the element of water upon it just as we see the moon, and the earth would light it as it lights us.
Lucretia Mott, fully Lucretia Coffin Mott
In the true married relationship, the independence of husband and wife will be equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal.
Dependence | Husband | Wife | Will |
Lucretius, fully Titus Lucretius Carus NULL
And yet it is hard to believe that anything in nature could stand revealed as solid matter. The lightning of heaven goes through the walls of houses, like shouts and speech; iron glows white in fire; red-hot rocks are shattered by savage steam; hard gold is softened and melted down by heat; chilly brass, defeated by heat, turns liquid; heat seeps through silver, so does piercing cold; by custom raising the cup, we feel them both as water is poured in, drop by drop, above.
It is a fascinating and provocative thought that a body of water deserves to be considered as an organism in its own right.
Max Weber, formally Maximilian Carl Emil Weber
Since Judaism made Christianity possible and gave it the character of a religion essentially free from magic, it rendered an important service from the point of view of economic history. For the dominance of magic outside the sphere in which Christianity has prevailed in one of the most serious obstructions to the rationalization of economic life. Magic involves a stereotyping of technology and economic relations. When attempts were made in China to inaugurate the building of railroads and factories a conflict with geomancy ensued ... Similar is the relation to capitalism of the castes in India. Every new technical process which an Indian employs signifies for him first of all that he leaves his caste and falls into another, necessarily lower ... An additional fact is that every caste makes every other caste impure. In consequence, workmen who dare not accept a vessel filled with water from each other's hands, cannot be employed together in the same factory room. Obviously, capitalism could not develop in an economic group thus bound hand and foot by magical means.
Capitalism | Character | Important | Magic | Religion | Service | Technology |
Menander, aka Menander of Athens NULL
I count it happiness, Ere we go quickly thither whence we came, To gaze ungrieving on these majesties, The world-wide sun, the stars, water and clouds, and fire. Live, Parmeno, a hundred years Or a few months, these you will always see and never, never, any greater things. Think of this life-time as a festival Or visit to a strange city, full of noise, Buying and selling, thieving, dicing stalls And joy parks. If you leave it early, friend, Why, think you have gone to find a better inn: You have paid your fare and leave no enemies.
Mencius, born Meng Ke or Ko NULL
Human nature is good, just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good, just as there is no water that does not flow downward..
Western man has tried for too many centuries to fool himself that he lives in a rational world. No. There's a story about a man who, while walking along the street, was almost hit on the head and killed by an enormous falling beam. This was his moment of realization that he did not live in a rational world but a world in which men's lives can be cut off by a random blow on the head, and the discovery shook him so deeply that he was impelled to leave his wife and children, who were the major part of his old, rational world. My own response to the wild unpredictability of the universe has been to write stories, to play the piano, to read, listen to music, look at paintings - not that the world may become explainable and reasonable but that I may rejoice in the freedom which unaccountability gives us.
Discovery | Freedom | Man | Play | Story | Universe | Wife | World | Discovery |
If one looks into the genealogies of many 'old families,' one discovers episodes of slave trafficking, bootlegging, gun running, opium trading, falsified land claims, violent acquisition of water and mineral rights, the extermination of indigenous peoples, sales of shoddy and unsafe goods, public funds used for private speculations, crooked deals in government bonds and vouchers, and payoffs for political favors. One finds fortunes built on slave labor, indentured labor, prison labor, immigrant labor, female labor, child labor, and scab labor -- backed by the lethal force of gun thugs and militia. 'Old money' is often little more than dirty money laundered by several generations of possession.
Dirty | Force | Government | Labor | Land | Little | Looks | Money | Prison | Public | Government | Child |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
Michael Jackson, fully Michael Joseph Jackson, aka MJ or King of Pop
In the end, the most important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love and work hard. Work like there's no tomorrow. Train. Strive. Really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it's books or a floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it's yours. That's what I've always tried to remember.
Miguel de Cervantes, fully Miguel de Cervantes Saaversa
All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories — and bless the man who invented sleep, a cloak over all human thought, food that drives away hunger, water that banishes thirst, fire that heats up cold, chill that moderates passion, and, finally, universal currency with which all things can be bought, weight and balance that brings the shepherd and the king, the fool and the wise, to the same level. There’s only one bad thing about sleep, as far as I’ve ever heard, and that is that it resembles death, since there’s very little difference between a sleeping man and a corpse.
In the Western imagination, reason has long belonged to terra firma. Island or continent, it repels water with a solid stubbornness: it only concedes its sand. As for unreason, it has been aquatic from the depths of time and until fairly recently. And more precisely oceanic: infinite space, uncertain ... Madness is the flowing liquid exterior of rocky reason.
Milarepa, fully Jetsun Milarepa NULL
All the water and drink you've consumed from beginningless time until now has failed to satisfy your thirst or bring you contentment. Drink therefore of this stream Of enlightened mind, Fortunate Ones.
Time |
The bashful learneth not, the impatient teacheth not. Why is Torah compared to water? To teach thee that as water floweth away from the lofty and gathereth only in the lowly places, so with wisdom among men.
Your smiling in your brother's face is charity an exhortation of your fellow man to virtuous deeds is equal to almsgiving, your putting a wanderer in the right road is charity, your assisting the blind is charity your removing stones and thorns and other obstructions from the road is charity your giving water to the thirsty is charity.