This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Weakness with watchfulness will stand, when strength with too much confidence fails. Weakness, with acknowledgement of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect his strength in; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to him in whom our strength lies.
Confidence | Consciousness | God | Strength | Watchfulness | Will | God |
Poverty of spirit should accompany us all our life long to let us see that we have no righteousness nor strength of our own for sanctification; that all the grace we have is out of ourselves, even for the performance of every holy duty; for though we have grace, yet we cannot bring that grace into act without new grace, even as there is a fitness in trees to bear fruit, but without the influence of heaven they cannot be fruitful. That which oftentimes makes us miscarry in the duties of our callings is this, we think we have strength and wisdom sufficient, and then what is begun in self-confidence is ended in shame. We set about duties in our own pride and strength of parts, and find no better success; therefore it is always a good sign that God will bless our endeavors, when out of a deep sense of our own weakness, we in prayers and supplications like our Lord also water our business with strong crying and tears
Better | Business | God | Good | Grace | Heaven | Influence | Life | Life | Lord | Pride | Righteousness | Self-confidence | Sense | Spirit | Strength | Will | Wisdom | Business | God | Think |
Richard E. Byrd, fully Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr.
Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used.
Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon
Isn't it better to talk about the relative merits of washing machines than the relative strength of rockets? Isn't this the kind of competition you want?
Better | Competition | Machines | Strength |
Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow; its force depends on the strength of the hand that draws it.
I count life just a stuff to try the soul's strength on.
Roland B. Gittelsohn, fully Roland Bertram Gittelsohn
This is the grimmest, and surely the holiest task we have faced since D–day. Here before us lie the bodies of comrades and friends. Men who until yesterday or last week laughed with us, joked with us, trained with us. Men who were on the same ships with us, and went over the side with us as we prepared to hit the beaches of this island.It is not easy to do so,” He continued. Some of us have buried our closest friends here. We saw these men killed before our very eyes. Any one of us might have died in their place. Indeed some of us are alive and breathing at this very monent only because men who lie here beneath us had the courage and strength to give their lives for ours. To speak in memory of men such as these is not easy . . . No, our poor power of speech can add nothing to what these men and the other dead of our Division who are not here have already done. All we can even hope to do is follow their example. To show the same selfless courage in peace as they did in war. To swear by the grace of God and the stubborn strength and power of human will, their sons and ours will never suffer these pains again. These men have done their job well. They have paid the ghastly price of freedom. . . . “We dedicate ourselves, first, to live together in peace the way they fought and are buried in this war. Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding and other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich men and poor--- together . . . . Theirs is the highest and purest democracy. Any man among us, the living, who fails to understand that will thereby betray those who lie here dead. Whoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother . . . . makes of this ceremony and of the bloody sacrifice it commemorates an empty, hollow mockery. To one thing more do we consecrate ourselves in memory of those who sleep beneath these crosses and stars. We shall not foolishly suppose, as did the last generation of America’s fighting men, that victory on the battlefield will automatically guarantee the triumph of Democracy at home. This war with all its frightful heartache and suffering, is but the beginning of our generations struggle for democracy . . . . Thus do we memorialize those who, have ceased living with us, now live within us. Thus do we consecrate ourselves, the living, to carry on the struggle they began. Too much pain and heartache have fertilized the earth on which we stand. We here solemnly swear: This shall not be in vain! Out of this, and from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn this, will come—we promise – the birth of a new freedom for the sons of men everywhere.
Beginning | Birth | Ceremony | Courage | Democracy | Earth | Fighting | Freedom | God | Guarantee | Hate | Hope | Man | Memory | Men | Mourn | Nothing | Pain | Peace | Power | Price | Sacrifice | Sorrow | Speech | Strength | Struggle | War | Will | God | Blessed | Friends | Understand |
Robert Southwell, also Saint Robert Southwell
A Child My Choice - Let folly praise that fancy loves, I praise and love that Child Whose heart no thought, whose tongue no word, whose hand no deed defiled. I praise Him most, I love Him best, all praise and love is His; While Him I love, in Him I live, and cannot live amiss. Love's sweetest mark, laud's highest theme, man's most desired light, To love Him life, to leave Him death, to live in Him delight. He mine by gift, I His by debt, thus each to other due; First friend He was, best friend He is, all times will try Him true. Though young, yet wise; though small, yet strong; though man, yet God He is: As wise, He knows; as strong, He can; as God, He loves to bless. His knowledge rules, His strength defends, His love doth cherish all; His birth our joy, His life our light, His death our end of thrall. Alas! He weeps, He sighs, He pants, yet do His angels sing; Out of His tears, His sighs and throbs, doth bud a joyful spring. Almighty Babe, whose tender arms can force all foes to fly, Correct my faults, protect my life, direct me when I die!
Angels | Birth | Choice | Death | Folly | Force | Friend | God | Heart | Knowledge | Life | Life | Love | Praise | Strength | Will | God | Child |
The fineness and strength essential to our best being, and to make us do our work, come by the hammer and the fire, by the thorn in the flesh, the trouble and pain in our life, which may act in us as the fire acts in the iron, welding the fiber afresh.
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
O Lord, who shall search out Thy profundities? For Thou hast set apart above the sphere of the constellations The sphere that is ninth in order, That encompasseth all the spheres and their creatures, Wherein they are closed up, Which driveth all the stars of heaven and their planets From the east to the west in the might of its movement. Once a day it bows down in the west to the King who enthroned it, p. 100 And all the creatures of the universe in its midst are as a grain of mustard in the vast ocean From the mighty vastness of its breadth. Yet all this and its greatness are accounted as nothing and naught By the side of the greatness of its Creator and King, And all its sublimities and grandeur "Are vain and void in comparison with Him."
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
O Lord, who can unroll Thy mysteries? For Thou hast made in the Height chambers and store-houses, Some of them awesome to tell of, a tale of mighty doings, And some treasuries of life for the pure and the clean. For some are treasures of salvation to those who have returned from iniquity, And some are treasures of fire, And rivers of brimstone For the breakers of the covenant. And there is a provision of deep pits whose fire is never quenched. "He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein." And there are caverns of storm-winds and tempests And congelation and cold, And treasures of hail and ice and snow and drought, Also of heat and flowing channels And of thick smoke and hoar-frost and of clouds and thick cloud, And darkness and gloom. The whole hast Thou prepared in its due season, "Thou hast ordained it for mercy or judgment, And established it, O Rock, for correction!"
Beauty | Children | Deeds | Glory | Land | Rest | Strength | Deeds | Beauty |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Who is like unto Thee to uncover the deeps, And who hath Thy power to raise and cast down? Show Thy marvellous love to the captive who weeps, O Worker of wonders, of awesome renown! Thy children belovèd intoned a new song When Egypt’s proud host found a watery grave, There was praise from the saints in their jubilant throng When the wheels of the chariots clogged in the wave. Thy fondlings storm-tossed were all weeping and tired When the great roaring flood-tides before them arose, But Thy hand led them safe to the haven desired And the waters returned, overwhelming their foes. The chariots of Pharaoh and all that great host God cast in the billows and covered them o’er, But His people trod sea-bottom, coast unto coast, He admonished the sea and it dried like the shore. Thus, Lord, do Thou Zion support and uphold, Arise, for the hour of her grace is at hand, The day long appointed to sing as of old, God reigneth, His Kingdom forever shall stand.
Cause | Dawn | Heart | Self | Strength | Thought | Thought |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Who can know Thy pathways? For Thou hast made palaces for the seven planets In the twelve constellations, And to the Ram and the Bull Thou hast imparted Thy strength in uniting them, And the third is the Twins, like two brothers in their unity And their human likeness. And the fourth is the Crab, And on him, as on the Lion, hast Thou bestowed of Thy splendour, And on his sister the Virgin, who is near unto him, And on the Scales and the Scorpion placed by his side, And on the ninth that was created in the form of a man of might, whose strength runs not dry, For he is the Archer, mighty of the bow. And thus too by Thy great power are created the Goat and the Water-Bearer, While alone is the last constellation, "For the Lord did appoint a great Fish." And these are the constellations high and exalted in their degrees, "Twelve princes according to the nations."
Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail; Lo! o'er ancient forms departing, Newer rites of grace prevail; Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail.
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Who can grasp Thy wonders? For Thou hast appointed him to furnish light to the stars Of high or low degree, And to the Moon, "If that white bright spot stays in its place" And according as she moves away to stand opposite the Sun, She receiveth his shining Until his light is at the full when she stands before him, And it irradiates her whole face. And when that she draws nigh in the latter half of the month, And declineth from him And is far from standing opposite him And proceedeth to the side of him, In that degree waneth her splendour, Till the end of her month and her circuit, And she declineth to her extreme rim. And when she is in conjunction with him She is hid in secret places For a day and half an hour And some numbered moments, And after that she is renewed and returneth to her prior self And "issueth forth as a bridegroom from his chamber."
The hostile multitudes are vast as space What chance is there that all should be subdued? Let but this angry mind be overthrown And every foe is then and there destroyed All the suffering in the world comes from seeking pleasure for oneself. All the happiness in the world comes from seeking pleasure for others. As long as space abides and as long as the world abides, so long may I abide, destroying the sufferings of the world. Where would I possibly find enough leather With which to cover the surface of the earth? But (just) leather on the soles of my shoes Is equivalent to covering the earth with it Likewise it is not possible for me To restrain the external course of things But should I restrain this mind of mine What would be the need to restrain all else? My body, thus, and all my good besides, And all my merits gained and to be gained, I give them all away withholding nothing To bring about the benefit of beings. All those who slight me to my face, Or do me any other evil, Even if they blame or slander me, May they attain the fortune of enlightenment! Take advantage of this human boat; Free yourself from sorrow’s mighty stream! This vessel will be later hard to find. The time that you have now, you fool, is not for sleep! Examine thus yourself from every side. Note harmful thoughts and every futile striving. Thus it is that heroes in the bodhisattva path Apply the remedies to keep a steady mind. Examine thus yourself from every side. Note harmful thoughts and every futile striving. Thus it is that heroes in the bodhisattva path Apply the remedies to keep a steady mind. Those who have no mental vigilance, Though they may hear the teachings, ponder them or meditate, With minds like water seeping from a leaking jug, Their learning will not settle in their memories. Suffering also has its worth. Through sorrow, pride is driven out And pity felt for those who wander in samsara; Evil is avoided, goodness seems delightful. May I be like a guard for those who are protectorless, A guide for those who journey on the road. For those who wish to go across the water, May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge. And so let beings do to me Whatever does not bring them injury. Whenever they catch sight of me, Let this not fail to bring them benefit. For sentient beings, poor and destitute, May I become a treasure ever plentiful, And lie before them closely in their reach, A varied source of all that they might need. As a blind man feels when he finds a pearl in a dustbin, so am I amazed by the miracles of awakening rising in my consciousness. It is the nectar of immortality that delivers us from death, the treasure that lifts us from death, the treasure that lifts us above poverty into the wealth of giving to life, the tree that gives shade to us when we roam about scorched by life, the bridge that takes us across the stormy river of life, the cool moon of compassion that calms our mind when it is agitated, the fun that dispels darkness, the butter made from the milk of kindness by churning it with the dharma. It is a feast of joy to which all are invited. All that I possess and use Is like the fleeting vision of a dream. It fades into the realms of memory; And fading, will be seen no more. Nothing that has passed can be regained. How much suffering and fear, and How many harmful things are in existence? If all arises from clinging to the “I”, What should I do with this great demon? Exchanging Self and Other.
Cause | Contemplation | Fear | Future | Good | Inclination | Joy | Means | Merit | Mind | Nothing | Patience | Perseverance | Pleasure | Repose | Strength | Suffering | Time | Will | Words | Zeal | Contemplation | Happiness |
Shoghí Effendi, fully Shoghí Effendí Rabbání
You should certainly safeguard your nerves and force yourself to take time, and not only for prayer and meditation, but for real rest and relaxation.
Forgiveness | Mercy | Mind | Object | Power | Rest | Strength | Thought | Will | Forgiveness | Thought |
Samuel Tilden, fully Samuel Jones Tilden
I Still Trust in The People. [engraved on his tombstone]
Accomplishment | Humility | Organization | Spirit | Strength | Success | Unity | Leadership |
Sara Teasdale, born Sara Trevor Teasdale, aka Sara Teasdale Filsinger
When I have ceased to break my wings Against the faultiness of things, And learned that compromises wait Behind each hardly opened gate, When I can look Life in the eyes, Grown calm and very coldly wise, Life will have given me the Truth, And taken in exchange -- my youth.