This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
It is not true that there are no enjoyments in the ways of sin; there are, many and various. But the great and radical defect of them all is, that they are transitory and insubstantial, at war with reason and conscience, and always leave a sting behind... They may and often do satisfy us for a moment; but it is death in the end. It is the bread of heaven and the water of life that can so satisfy that we shall hunger no more and thirst no more forever.
Conscience | Death | Heaven | Hunger | Life | Life | Reason | Sin | War | Wisdom |
Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.
Cooperation | Justice | Men | Trust | Wisdom |
François Fénelon, fully Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon
If we had strength and faith enough to trust ourselves entirely to God, and follow Him simply wherever He should lead us, we should have no need of any great effort of mind to reach perfection.
Effort | Enough | Faith | God | Mind | Need | Perfection | Strength | Trust | Wisdom |
Like a great poet, Nature produces the greatest results with the simplest means. These are simply a sun, flowers, water and love. Of course, if the spectator be without the last, the whole will present but a pitiful appearance; and, in that case, the sun is merely so many miles in diameter, the trees are good for fuel, the flowers are classified by stamens, and the water is simply wet.
Appearance | Good | Love | Means | Nature | Present | Will | Wisdom |
Do not trust to what lazy men call the spur of the occasion.
Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla
No time exists other than now... So now is all you have and all you ever will have... Why not begin doing the best you can right where you are?... Trust the process of growth. Trust God. Pay attention to the details of your life, doing your very best with each challenge that presents itself... The past is the raw material of the present, but the past is not a blueprint for the present... Begin where you are. Do what you can. Even a small effort to change, to grow, to improve, will bring astonishing results... You can choose to build on what you were, but you are not what you were. You can focus on what you will be, but you are not what you will be. What you are is what you are right now - the inheritor of all of God’s gifts.
Attention | Challenge | Change | Effort | Focus | God | Growth | Life | Life | Past | Present | Right | Time | Trust | Will | Wisdom |
Lyndon Johnson, fully Lyndon Baines Johnson, aka LBJ
A compassionate government keeps faith with the trust of the people and cherishes the future of their children.
Children | Faith | Future | Government | People | Trust | Wisdom | Government |
D. H. Lawrence, fully David Herbert "D.H." Lawrence
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
Lucretius, fully Titus Lucretius Carus NULL
Even drops of water falling upon a stone in the long run wears a way through the stone.
Wisdom |
When a pump is frequently used, the water pours out at the first stroke, because it is high; but, if the pump has not been used for a long time, the water gets low, and when you want it you must pump a long while; and the water comes only after great efforts. It is so with prayer. If we are instant in prayer, every little circumstance awakens the disposition to pray, and desire and words are always ready; but, if we neglect prayer, it is difficult for us to pray, for the water in the well gets low.
Desire | Little | Neglect | Prayer | Time | Wisdom | Words | Circumstance |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Those who give the first shock to a state are naturally the first to be overwhelmed in its ruin. The fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by the man who was the first to set it a going; he only troubles the water for another’s net.