This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he. We are two lions littered in one day, and I the elder and more terrible, and Caesar shall go forth. Julius Caesar, Act ii, Scene 2
Wit |
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: by that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, the image of his maker, hope to win by it? Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee; corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, to silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not: let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, thy god's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, o cromwell, thou fall'st a blessed martyr! Serve the king; and,-prithee, lead me in: there take an inventory of all I have, to the last penny; 'tis the king's: my robe, and my integrity to heaven, is all i dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell! Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies. Henry VIII, Act iii, Scene 2
Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth in strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth is with a kind of colic pinched and vexed by the imprisoning of unruly wind within the womb, which, for enlargement striving, shakes the old beldame earth and topples down steeples and mossgrown towers. King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Wit |
What keeps persons down in the world, besides lack of capacity, is not a philosophical contempt of riches or honors, but thoughtlessness and improvidence, a love of sluggish torpor, and of present gratification. It is not from preferring virtue to wealth--the goods of the mind to those of fortune--that they take no thought for the morrow; but from want of forethought and stern self-command. The restless, ambitious man too often directs these qualities to an unworthy object; the contented man is generally deficient in the qualities themselves. The one is a stream that flows too often in a wrong channel, and needs to have its course altered, the other is a stagnant pool.
A man who is always well satisfied with himself is seldom so with others, and others as little pleased with him.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry.
O place, O form, How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit, Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls To thy false seeming!
Nature does not capriciously scatter her secrets as golden gifts to lazy pets and luxurious darlings, but imposes tasks when she presents opportunities, and uplifts him whom she would inform. The apple that she drops at the feet of Newton is but a coy invitation to follow her to the stars.
Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter, dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty, beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; as much as child e'er loved, or father found, a love that makes breath poor and speech unable.
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Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra May NULL
What will my enemies not say, that for the safety of her life a maiden queen could be content to spill the blood even of her own kinswoman?
Wit |
Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra May NULL
There will never Queen sit in my seat with more zeal to my country, care to my subjects and that will sooner with willingness venture her life for your good and safety than myself. For it is my desire to live nor reign no longer than my life and reign shall be for your good. And though you have had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had nor shall have, any that will be more careful and loving.
Wit |
There's life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowulf and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil.
The irony here is that the rise of interest in spiritual direction almost certainly comes from the proliferation of role-defined activism in our culture. We are sick and tired of being slotted into a function and then manipulated with Scripture and prayer to do what someone has decided (often with the help of some psychological testing) that we should be doing to bring glory to some religious enterprise or other. And so when people begin to show up who are interested in us just as we are - our souls - we are ready to be paid attention to in this prayerful, listening, non-manipulative, nonfunctional way. Spiritual direction.
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