This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Man learns to see providence in the great universal forces of nature, in the wind and the rain, in the soil underfoot and in the cloud overhead.
Man | Nature | Providence |
Dim sadness did not spare that time celestial visages; yet mixed with pity, violated not their bliss.
When I look upon the tombs of the great, every motion of envy dies... I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the frivolous competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.
We turn virtues upside down and want to soil a clean vessel. If any honest man lives among us, we call him slow and stupid.
Man |
Beauty is that which attracts your soul, and that which loves to give and not to receive. When you meet Beauty, you feel that the hands deep within your inner self are stretched forth to bring her into the domain of your heart. It is a magnificence combined of sorrow and joy; it is the Unseen which you see, and the Vague which you understand, and the Mute which you hear - it is the Holy of Holies that begins in yourself and ends vastly beyond your earthly imagination.
Beauty | Ends | Heart | Imagination | Joy | Receive | Self | Sorrow | Soul |
Vain are the beliefs and teachings that make man miserable, and false is the good ness that leads him into sorrow and despair, for it is man's purpose to be happy on this earth and lead the way to felicity and preach its gospel wherever he goes. He who does not see the kingdom of heaven in this life will never see it in the coming life. We came not into this life by exile, but we came as innocent creatures of God, to learn how to worship the holy and eternal spirit and seek the hidden secrets within ourselves from the beauty of life.
Beauty | Despair | Earth | Eternal | God | Good | Happy | Heaven | Life | Life | Man | Purpose | Purpose | Sorrow | Spirit | Will | Worship | Beauty | Learn |
Present unhappiness is selfish; past sorrow is compassionate.
Past | Present | Sorrow | Unhappiness |
Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. Solitude is the ally of sorrow as well as a companion of spiritual exaltation.
When either your joy or your sorrow become great the world becomes small.
Marcel Proust, fully Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust
Happiness is salutary for the body, but it is sorrow that develops spiritual strength.
Martin Seligman, Martin E. P. "Marty" Seligman
When we are happy, we are less self-focused, we like others more, and we want to share our good fortune even with strangers. When we are down, though, we become distrustful, turn inward, and focus defensively on our own needs. Looking out for Number One is more characteristic of sadness than of well-being.
There is a burden of care in getting riches, fear in keeping them, temptation in using them, guilt in abusing them, sorrow in losing them, and a burden of account at last to be given up concerning them.
Care | Fear | Guilt | Riches | Sorrow | Temptation | Temptation |
To know the needs of men and to bear the burden of their sorrow - is the true love of men.
There is something more awful in happiness than in sorrow - the alter being earthly and finite, the former composed of the substance and texture of eternity, so that spirits still embodied may well tremble at it.
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
We would not be human if we did not miss loved ones; but in feeling lonesome for them we don’t want selfish attachment to be the cause of keeping them earthbound. Extreme sorrow prevents a departed soul from going ahead toward greater peace and freedom.
Ovid, formally Publius Ovidius Naso NULL
Tears too are useful; with tears you can melt iron.
Tears |