This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
To pursue truth with such astonishing lack of consideration for other people's feelings, to rend the think veils of civilisation so wantonly, so brutally, was to her so horrible an outrage of human decency that, without replying, dazed and blinded, she bend her head as if to let her pelt f jagged hail, the drench of dirty water, bespatter her unrebuked.
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
Yet who reads to bring about an end, however desirable? Are there not some pursuits that we practise because they are good in themselves, and some pleasures that are final? And is not this among them? I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards–their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble–the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when he sees us coming with our books under our arms, Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.
Zoroaster, aka Zarathustra or Zarathushtra Spitama NULL
The teacher of evil destroys the lore, he by his teaching destroys the design of life, he prevents the possession of Good Thought from being prized. These words of my spirit I wail unto you, O Mazda, and to the Right.
Evil | Faith | Good | Land | Mind | Order | Principles | Prosperity | Blessed |
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
We are about to part, said Neville. Here are the boxes; here are the cabs. There is Percival in his billycock hat. He will forget me. He will leave my letters lying about among guns and dogs unaswered. I shall send him poems and he will perhaps reply with a picture post card. But it is for that that I love him. I shall propose a meeting - under a clock, by some Cross; and shall wait and he will not come. It is for that that I love him.
Zoroaster, aka Zarathustra or Zarathushtra Spitama NULL
So conscience for the sinner distorts the truth of the upright, but (his) soul is in agony at the judgment of the Chinvat Bridge, having strayed by his own deeds and tongue from the Path of Righteousness.
Body | Faith | Knowledge | Life | Life | Mankind | Power | Soul |
Virginia Woolf, nee Stephen, fully Adeline Virginia Woolf
What people had had shed and left--a pair of shoes, a shooting cap, some faded skirts and coats in wardrobes--those alone kept the human shape and in the emptiness indicated how once they were filled and animated; how once hands were busy with hooks and buttons; how once the looking-glass had held a face; had held a world hollowed out in which a figure turned, a hand flashed, the door opened, in came children rushing and tumbling; and went out again. Now, day after day, light turned, like a flower reflected in water, its sharp image on the wall opposite. Only the shadows of the trees, flourishing in the wind, made obeisance on the wall, and for a moment darkened the pool in which light reflected itself; or birds, flying, made a soft spot flutter slowly across the bedroom floor.
Genius | Integrity | Life | Life | Light | Means | Mind | Nature | People | Thought | Thought |
Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
Right reactions to daily challenges can change the kind of a day you experience.
Virgil, also Vergil, fully Publius Vergilius Maro NULL
The wavering multitude is divided into opposite factions.
Virgil, also Vergil, fully Publius Vergilius Maro NULL
The mind of man is ignorant of fate and future destiny, and cannot keep within due bounds when elated by prosperity.
Mind |
Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
If we choose the easy way, by letting another think for us, we must eventually tread the hard way. If we select the hard way, by insisting upon our own mental integrity, we eventually come to the easy way.
Insight | Means | Mind | Nature | Truth | Will | Circumstance |
Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
You can be totally different. You can have an excitement that never swings over to depression. It is the true excitement of finding yourself. Nothing is more exciting than to watch a fear fade from your mind forever. Nothing is more delightful than to possess self-command in a world of chaos. There is no greater inspiration than to know that you have found the true path at last.
Mind |
A young man wanted to know the difference between Heaven and Hell. The sage led him to two rooms with observation portals, one labeled Heaven and one Hell. Looking in at Hell he saw a banquet table filled with luscious food but the people at the table were emaciated and distressed. Their spoons had long handles to reach the food, but the handles were too long to bring the food to their mouths. Then he looked in on Heaven. Same table full of luscious food. Same long spoons. But the people were healthy and happy and using their long-handled spoons to feed one another.
Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
The last thing on earth which should bother you is the sudden failure of your carefully laid plans. Do not take your plans as being you and the disruption of any plan will be as nothing to you. Your plans are not you; they only appear to be so because of that human mistake called identification.