This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
I too will go, remembering what I said to you, when any land, the first to which we came seemed that we sought, and set your hearts aflame, and all seemed won to you: but still I think, perchance years hence, the fount of life to drink, unless by some ill chance I first am slain. But boundless risk must pay for boundless gain.
Happy | Imagination | Man | Memory | Men | Mind | Past | Pleasure | Soul | Will | Wills | Work | Think |
Forget days past, heart-broken, put all memory by No grief on the green hillside, no pity in the sky, Joy that may not be spoken fills mead and flower and tree.
Pre-internet, Mass Media could charge for ads based on total circulation or viewership whether anyone opened the newspaper to page A5 or actually watched the evening news at 5:42 P.M. Now Mass Media can charge only if the reader actually reads the specific page in question. Fark’s own usage statistics indicate that the average Fark reader clicks on 2 or 3 articles out of 100 main page articles and 200 sub-page articles. The implication here is that people visiting Mass Media Web sites don’t read many of the articles. Putting it simply: On the Internet, Mass Media can no longer charge money for ads no one sees.
Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams
What are you after? Well, said Zaphod airily, It's partly the curiosity, partly a sense of adventure, but mostly I think it's the fame and the money.
Great actions, the luster of which dazzles us, are represented by politicians as the effects of deep design; whereas they are commonly the effects of caprice and passion. Thus the war between Augustus and Antony, supposed to be owing to their ambition to give a master to the world, arose probably from jealousy.
Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams
This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.
Ability wins us the esteem of the true men: luck that of the people.
Work |
Gratitude is like the good faith of traders--it maintains commerce; and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.
Body | Understanding |
White House pressrooms (no matter which political party is in charge) toss out a huge dump of bad news around 5:00 PM every Friday. Which as far as I can tell is at least five hours after the media corps has clocked out for a three-martini lunch with no intention of coming back to work until Monday.
The generality of friends puts us out of conceit with friendship; just as the generality of religious people puts us out of conceit with religion.
Mind |
Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.
The happiness or unhappiness of men depends no less upon their dispositions than their fortunes.
Men | Mind | Unhappiness | Happiness |
We have more strength than will; and it is often merely for an excuse we say things are impossible.
If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!
Mind |
It appears that nature has hid at the bottom of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It is only the passions that have the power of bringing them to light, and sometimes give us views more true and more perfect than art could possibly do.
The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.
Mind |
We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.
It is given to few persons to keep this secret well. Those who lay down rules too often break them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen much, to speak little, and to say nothing that that will ever give ground or regret.
The less you trust others, the less you will be deceived.
The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers.