This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
William Henley, fully William Ernest Henley
Double Ballade on the Nothingness of Things - The big teetotum twirls, And epochs wax and wane As chance subsides or swirls; But of the loss and gain The sum is always plain. Read on the mighty pall, The weed of funeral That covers praise and blame, The -isms and the -anities, Magnificence and shame:-- "O Vanity of Vanities!" The Fates are subtle girls! They give us chaff for grain. And Time, the Thunderer, hurls, Like bolted death, disdain At all that heart and brain Conceive, or great or small, Upon this earthly ball. Would you be knight and dame? Or woo the sweet humanities? Or illustrate a name? O Vanity of Vanities! We sound the sea for pearls, Or drown them in a drain; We flute it with the merles, Or tug and sweat and strain; We grovel, or we reign; We saunter, or we brawl; We search the stars for Fame, Or sink her subterranities; The legend's still the same:-- "O Vanity of Vanities!" Here at the wine one birls, There some one clanks a chain. The flag that this man furls That man to float is fain. Pleasure gives place to pain: These in the kennel crawl, While others take the wall. She has a glorious aim, He lives for the inanities. What come of every claim? O Vanity of Vanities! Alike are clods and earls. For sot, and seer, and swain, For emperors and for churls, For antidote and bane, There is but one refrain: But one for king and thrall, For David and for Saul, For fleet of foot and lame, For pieties and profanities, The picture and the frame:-- "O Vanity of Vanities!" Life is a smoke that curls-- Curls in a flickering skein, That winds and whisks and whirls, A figment thin and vain, Into the vast Inane. One end for hut and hall! One end for cell and stall! Burned in one common flame Are wisdoms and insanities. For this alone we came:-- "O Vanity of Vanities!" Envoy Prince, pride must have a fall. What is the worth of all Your state's supreme urbanities? Bad at the best's the game. Well might the Sage exclaim:-- "O Vanity of Vanities!"
The very hirelings of the press, whose trade it is to buoy up the spirits of the people. have uttered falsehoods so long, they have played off so many tricks, that their budget seems, at last, to be quite empty.
Labor |
Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant
A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist
Cause | Civilization |
Wilkie Collins, fully William Wilkie Collins
I haven't much time to be fond of anything ... but when I have a moment's fondness to bestow, most times ... the roses get it. I began my life among them in my father's nursery garden, and I shall end my life among them, if I can. Yes. One of these days (please God) I shall retire from catching thieves, and try my hand at growing roses.
Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
One-third of the people in the United States promote, while the other two-thirds provide.
Wants |
Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
Every land or property owner in America would be tickled to death to pay 45 per cent of his profits, if he didn't have to pay anything if he didn't make it.
Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
I am a peace man. I haven't got any use for wars and there is no more humor in 'em than there is reason for 'em.
Cost |
The defense of our democracy against the forces that threaten it from without has made some of its failures to function at home glaringly apparent.
Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha
There's no question in my mind the number one problem of mankind is the spread of nuclear knowledge, ... It should be at the top of the list for our government.
Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha
It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha
There’s no reason, we should become fearful, if a stock goes down. If a stock goes down 50%, I’d look forward to it. In fact, I would offer you a significant sum of money, if you could give me the opportunity for all of my stocks, to go down 50% over the next month.
Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha
It's got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You're seeing through new situations every ten minutes…In the stock market you don't base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational….Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You're doing calculations all the time.
Sometimes he spent hours together in the great libraries of Paris, those catacombs of departed authors, rummaging among their hoards of dusty and obsolete works in quest of ghoul, feeding in the charnel house of decayed literature.
I’ve come down from the sky like some damned ghost, delayed too long…To the abandoned fields the trees returned and grew. They stand and grow. Time comes to them, time goes, the trees stand; the only place they go is where they are. Those wholly patient ones… They do no wrong, and they are beautiful. What more Could we have thought to ask?... I stand and wait for light to open the dark night. I stand and wait for prayer to come and find me here.
Cause | Disease | Individual | Motives | Order | People | Power | Success | Will | World |
W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.