This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, aka Vatican II
There was no need to call a council merely to hold discussions of that nature. What is needed at the present time is a new enthusiasm, a new joy and serenity of mind in the unreserved acceptance by all of the entire Christian faith, without forfeiting that accuracy and precision in its presentation which characterized the proceedings of the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council. What is needed, and what everyone imbued with a truly Christian, Catholic and apostolic spirit craves today, is that this doctrine shall be more widely known, more deeply understood, and more penetrating in its effects on men's moral lives. What is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms. For this deposit of faith, or truths which are contained in our time-honored teaching is one thing; the manner in which these truths are set forth (with their meaning preserved intact) is something else. This, then, is what will require our careful, and perhaps too our patient, consideration. We must work out ways and means of expounding these truths in a manner more consistent with a predominantly pastoral view of the Church's teaching office.
Conduct | Eternal | Life | Life | Men | Mortal | Obligation | Purpose | Purpose | Regard | Right |
Rutherford B. Hayes, fully Rutherford Birchard Hayes
We can travel longer, night and day, without losing our spirits than almost any persons we ever met.
Conduct | Extreme | Moderation | Power | Moderation | Old |
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you.
Ability | Attention | Attentiveness | Cause | Conduct | Contemplation | Desire | Experience | Fear | God | Knowledge | Light | Love | Means | Nothing | Peace | Pleasure | Receive | Rest | Soul | Spirit | Trials | Trust | Will | God | Contemplation |
Saint Maximus the Confessor NULL
A crown of goodness (cf. Ps. 65:11) is a pure faith, adorned with eloquent doctrine, and with spiritual principles and intellections, as if with precious stones, and set as it were on the head of the devout intellect. Or rather, a crown of goodness is the Logos of God Himself, who encircles the intellect as if it were a head, protecting it with manifold forms of providence and judgment - that is, with mastery of the passions that lie within our control and with patient endurance of those we suffer against our will; and who makes this same intellect more beautiful by enabling it to participate in the grace of deification.
Grant, O Lord my God, that I may never fall away in success or in failure; that I may not be prideful in prosperity nor dejected in adversity. Let me rejoice only in what unites us and sorrow only in what separates us. May I strive to please no one or fear to displease anyone except Yourself. May I see always the things that are eternal and never those that are only temporal. May I shun any joy that is without You and never seek any that is beside You. O Lord, may I delight in any work I do for You and tire of any rest that is apart from You. My God, let me direct my heart towards You, and in my failings, always repent with a purpose of amendment.
Conduct | Heart | Hope | Lord | Mind | Perseverance | Waiting | Wisdom |
Sallust, full name Carus Valerius Sailustius Crispus NULL
By union the smallest states thrive, by discord the greatest are destroyed.
I want to tell you, Socialists, that I have studied your philosophy; read your works upon economics, and not the meanest of them; studied your standard works, both in English and German -- have not only read, but studied them. I have heard your orators and watched the work of your movement the world over. I have kept close watch upon your doctrines for thirty years; have been closely associated with many of you, and know how you think and what you propose. I know, too, what you have up your sleeve. And I want to say that I am entirely at variance with your philosophy. I declare to you, I am not only at variance with your doctrines, but with your philosophy. Economically you are unsound; socially, you are wrong; industrially, you are an impossibility.
Better | Conduct | Cost | Industry | Labor | Will | Negotiation | Think | Understand |
If some of these millionaire faddists . . . would more keenly interest themselves in improving conditions, than trying to divert the attention of the workers to the millennium of the sweet by and by, they would be of more practical advantage to their fellows here, and now, as well as for the future.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and gain applause which he cannot keep.
The World War in which we are engaged in is on such a tremendous scale that we must readjust practically the whole nation's social and economic structure from a peace to a war basis. It devolves upon liberty-loving citizens, and particularly the workers of this country, to see to it that the spirit and the methods of democracy are maintained within our own country while we are engaged in a war to establish them in international relations. The fighting and the concrete issues of the war are so removed from our country that not all of our citizens have a full understanding of the principles of autocratic force which the Central Powers desire to substitute for the real principles of freedom.
Collusion | Conduct | Determination | Future | Half-truth | Influence | Labor | Little | Opportunity | People | Policy | Purpose | Purpose | Qualities |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates to the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and ignorance, the extinction and resuscitation of arts, and the revolutions of the intellectual world. - If accounts of battles and invasions are peculiarly the business of princes, the useful and elegant arts are not to be neglected, and those who have kingdoms to govern have understandings to cultivate.
Men cannot be raised in masses as the mountains were in he early geological states of the world. They must be dealt with as units; for it is only by the elevation of individuals that the elevation of the masses can be effectively secured.
Character | Civilization | Conduct | Example | Future | Good | Honesty | Influence | Life | Life | Men | Present | Progress | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Time |
Hope ... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.
Conduct | Important | Principles |
Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud
No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.
Conduct | Existence | Indispensable | Individual | Justification | Life | Life | Means | Reality | Work | Value |