This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
How like a mounting devil in the heart rules the unreined ambition.
Booth Tarkington, born Newton Booth Tarkington
Mothers see the angel in us because the angel is there. If it's shown to the mother, the son has got an angel to show, hasn't he? When a son cuts somebody's throat the mother only sees it's possible for a misguided angel to act like a devil - and she's entirely right about that!
Neil Gaiman, fully Neil Richard Gaiman
Why do they blame me for all their little failings? They use my name as if I spent my entire days sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commits acts they would otherwise find repulsive. 'The devil made me do it.' I have never made one of them do anything. Never. They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them.
Ronald Knox, fully Ronald Arbuthnott Knox
It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.
Civilization | Devil |
The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.
And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned around on you--where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast--man's laws, not God's--and if you cut them down... d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
Idleness is the badge of the gentry, the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, the stepmother of discipline, the chief author of all mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, the cushion upon which the devil chiefly reposes, and a great cause not only of melancholy, but of many other diseases; for the mind is naturally active, and, if it is not occupied about some honest business, it rushes into mischief or sinks into melancholy.
Robert Service, fully Robert William Service
I have no doubts that the Devil grins, As seas of ink I spatter. Ye gods, forgive my “literary” sins – The other kind don’t matter.
And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed--they know the angels are on their side: They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for them are the Mercies multiplied; They sit at the Feet, they hear the Word, they see how truly the Promise runs; They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and--the Lord He lays it on Martha's sons!
Roy L. Smith, aka Mr. Methodist
Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.
But till we are built like angels, with hammer and chisel and pen, We will work for ourself and a woman, for ever and ever, Amen.
Devil |
'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walked down a street.
Devil |