This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.
Man is not an omipotent master of the universe, allowed to do with impunity whatever he thinks, or whatever suits him at the moment. The world we live in is made of an immensely complex and mysterious tissue about which we know very little and which we must treat with utmost humility.
If men were basically evil, who would bother to improve the world instead of giving it up as a bad job at the outset?
V. S. Pritchett, fully Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett
Some writers thrive on the contact with the commerce of success; others are corrupted by it. Perhaps, like losing one's virginity, it is not as bad (or as good) as one feared it was going to be.
Appearance | Giving | Piety | Public | Old |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
To possess taste, one must have some soul.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
If you love life, the fear of death.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
The war is not so expensive that bondage.
Practice | Usefulness | Virtue | Virtue |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Vice foments war; it is virtue which actually fights. If there were no virtue, we would live in peace forever.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
High place is quick to educate high minds.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
We are almost always guilty of the hate we encounter.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Our opinion of others is not so variable as our opinion of ourselves.
Hung Tzu-ch'eng, also Hong Zicheng or Hóng Zìchéng, born Hong Yingming
When you are still plowing fields ahead, make a point of being open-minded, and there will be no murmuring among others. After your life is over, its blessings will flow for a long time, giving contentment to people in their thoughts.