This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don't get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goats cheese... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle. " - Barbara Ehrenreich, born Barbara Alexander
"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature ~ the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter." - Rachel Carson, fully Rachel Louise Carson
"From this day forward, let each of us make a solemn commitment in his own heart: to bear his responsibility, to do his part, to live his ideals--so that together, we can see the dawn of a new age of progress for America, and together, as we celebrate our 200th anniversary as a nation, we can do so proud in the fulfillment of our promise to ourselves and to the world." - Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon
"Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay." - Robert Frost
"Modern poets talk against business, poor things, but all of us write for money. Beginners are subjected to trial by market. So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay." - Robert Frost
"Nature does not complete things. She is chaotic. Man must finish, and he does so by making a garden and building a wall. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing Gold can stay. " - Robert Frost
"My creed: To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits, to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love family and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beautiful in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the world; to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words; to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness, to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then be resigned. This is the religion of reason, the creed of science. This satisfies the brain and the heart." - Robert Ingersoll, fully Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll
"My soul shall declare to Thee Thou art her former And shall Thee as her maker, O God, testify, At Thy word 'Be, O Soul' did she take on existence, And from naught didst Thou draw her as light from the eye. Of Thee she shall own and affirm, hand uplifted, ’Twas Thou that didst breathe her in me, and as due For that work she shall pour out her thanks and bear witness That to me she was given Thy bidding to do. She serves Thee as handmaid while yet in the body, And the day she returns to the land whence she came, In Thee will she dwell, for in Thee is her being, Doth she rise, doth she sit, Thou art with her the same. She was Thine when unborn ere the day of her breathing, With wisdom and knowledge by Thee she was fed, And to Thee for her ordinance looks, and subsistence, Indebted to Thee for her water and bread. Her gaze is to Thee, and in Thee is her hoping When like novice in child-birth she cries in affright. O take her torn heart as a sacrifice offered, And her ribs lacerated for fiery rite. To Thee let her pour out her tears as drink-off’ring, Let the breath of her sighing as incense-cloud be, At her gate and her doorway she watches with prayer, She is burning like flame with her passion for Thee. She must ever approach Thee as servant his master, Or as handmaiden looks to her mistress’s eye, She must spread out her palms in request and petition And turn herself humbly to Thee in her cry. For call Thee she must, nor endure to be silent, Like a bird in the net her one hope is in flight, In the depth of the night she must rise and keep vigil, For her work is Thy works to declare and recite. For Thee she must pine and of Thee make entreaty, Her hand must be clean and as stainless her thought. Her breach do Thou heal, be her hope and her helper, When she draws nigh redeem her, her sin count as naught. Behold her affliction, and hark to her weeping, In the sphere of the soul she with Thee is alone, Repay and restore her, attend to her anguish, When her sobs and her tears her backslidings bemoan. Bemock, O Almighty, the foes that bemock her, Avenge with due vengeance her insults and shame, In her stress be a rock of support ‘gainst her foeman, Nor yield up the child Thou to manhood didst frame. No enemy came, whose reproach could be borne with, No cruel one hunted her down in her track, ’Twas the friends of her household betrayed her—her passions— ’Twas her comrade who bloodily stabbed in the back. I ever am seeking my body’s best welfare, Yet it in return would my spirit undo. Ah, truly the fruit of the tree in its root is, The proverb "Like mother, like daughter" is true." - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
"Humble of spirit, lowly of knee and stature, But in fear and awe abounding, I come before Thee. And in Thy presence to myself appear As a little earth-worm. O Thou, who fillest the earth and whose greatness is endless, Shall one like me laud Thee, And how shall he honour Thee? The angels of heaven do not suffice, How then one like me? Thou hast wrought good and hast magnified mercies, Wherefore the soul shall magnify praise of Thee." - 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." - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
"Who can grasp Thy greatness? For Thou hast appointed the Sun for the computing Of days and of years, and appointed periods, And to make the fruit-tree to burgeon, And, under the sweet influence of the Pleiades and the bands of Orion, The green shoots luxuriant. Six months he journeyeth towards the north to warm the air, And the waters, the woods, and the rocks, And as he draweth nigh to the north, The days grow longer and the seasons wax, Till there is found a place where the day is so lengthened That it lasteth six months, According to confirmed indications, And six months he journeyeth towards the south In his appointed courses Till there is found a place where the night is so lengthened That it lasteth six months, According to the proof of searchers. And from this may be known a fringe of the ways of the Creator, A whisper of His mighty powers, Of His strength and His wondrous works. As from the greatness of servants May the greatness of the master be known By all men of understanding, So through the ministering Sun is revealed The grandeur and glory of the Lord, "For all the goods of his Master are delivered into his hands."" - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
"Open the gate my beloved— arise, and open the gate: my spirit is shaken and I’m afraid. My mother’s maid has been mocking me and her heart is raised against me, so the Lord would hear her child’s cry. From the middle of midnight’s blackness, a wild ass pursues me, as the forest boar has crushed me; and the end which has long been sealed only deepens my wound, and no one guides me—and I am blind." - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
"It is enough for me by day To walk the same bright earth with him; Enough that over us by night The same great roof of stars is dim. I do not hope to bind the wind Or set a fetter on the sea -- It is enough to feel his love Blow by like music over me. " - Sara Teasdale, born Sara Trevor Teasdale, aka Sara Teasdale Filsinger
"We deemed the secret lost, the spirit gone, Which spake in Greek simplicity of thought, And in the forms of gods and heroes wrought Eternal beauty from the sculptured stone — A higher charm than modern culture won, With all the wealth of metaphysic lore, Gifted to analyze, dissect explore. A many-colored light flows from our sun; Art, 'neath its beams a motley thread has spun; The prison modifies the perfect day; But thou hast known such mediums to shun, And cast once more on life a pure white ray. Absorbed in the creations of thy mind, Forgetting daily self, my truest friend I find." - Margaret Fuller, fully Sara Margaret Fuller, Marchese Ossoli
"I oppose registration for the draft . . . because I believe the security of freedom can best be achieved by security through freedom." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan
"And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke." - Rudyard Kipling
"Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees, So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away! And the Glory of the Garden, it shall never pass away!" - Rudyard Kipling
"Once there was The People - Terror gave it birth; Once there was The People, and it made a hell of earth! Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, oh, ye slain! Once there was The People - it shall never be again!" - Rudyard Kipling
"A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"No prayer is complete without presence." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the door sill where two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"The clear bead at the center changes everything. There are no edges to my loving now. I've heard it said there's a window that opens from one mind to another, but if there's no wall, there's no need for fitting the window, or the latch." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"There’s a morning when presence comes over your soul. You sing like a rooster in your earth-colored shape. Your heart hears and, no longer frantic, begins to dance." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"Thou art not that body: thou art this spiritual Eye." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
"Mercy and justice (just judgment) in one soul is like a man who worships God and the idols in one house. Mercy is opposed to justice. Justice is the equality of the even scale, for it gives to each as he deserves; and when it makes recompense, it does not incline to one side or show respect of persons. Mercy, on the other hand, is a sorrow and pity stirred up by goodness, and it compassionately inclines a man in the direction of all; it[, mercy,] does not requite [or give equal retribution, an eye for an eye, to] a man who is deserving of evil, and to him who is deserving of good it gives a double portion." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
"There is no service more agreeable to God than helping to save souls. To employ one’s life in this blessed labor is more pleasing to God than to suffer martyrdom!" - John Chrysostom, fully Saint John Chrysostom
"We mourn over the sin which brought about that downfall (the Temple destruction -- author), we take to heart the harshness which we have encountered in our years of wandering as the chastisement of a father, imposed on us for our improvement, and we mourn the lack of observance of the Torah which that ruin has brought about. Not in order to shine as a nation among nations do we raise our prayers and hopes for a reunion in our land, but in order to find a soil for the better fulfillment of our spiritual vocation in that reunion and in that land which was promised, and given, and again promised for our observance of the Torah. But this very vocation obliges us, until G-d shall call us back to the Holy Land, to live and to work as patriots wherever He has placed us, to collect all the physical, material and spiritual forces and all that is noble in Israel to further the weal of the nations which have given us shelter. It obliges us, further, to allow our longing for the far-off land to express itself only in mourning, in wishing and hoping; and only through the honest fulfillment of all Jewish duties to await the realization of this hope. But it forbids us to strive for the reunion or possession of the land by any but spiritual means." - Samson Raphael Hirsch
"If, in all this civilization, and if, in all the wealth produced, if in all this great fertile country of ours . . . we assert first, that wherever and whenever there be one human soul in our country walking the streets unable to find the opportunity to perform work and service to society, to demand in return for it the decent livelihood with opportunities for the cultivation of the best that is in us, if there is that opportunity denied to any one single man or woman in all this country, to him or to her all our boasted civilization is a sham." - Samuel Gompers
"I will charge my soul to believe and wait for Him, and will follow His providence, and not go before it, nor stay behind it." - Samuel Rutherford
"One can never really give a proof of the reality of anything; reality is not something open to proof, it is something established. It is established just because proof is not enough. It is this characteristic of language, at once indispensable and inadequate, which shows the reality of the external world. Most people hardly ever realize this, because it is rare that the very same man thinks and puts his thought into action." - Simone Weil
"Evolution has ensured that our brains just aren't equipped to visualise 11 dimensions directly. However, from a purely mathematical point of view it's just as easy to think in 11 dimensions, as it is to think in three or four." - Stephen Hawking
"The soul should know whither it is going and whence it came, what is good for it and what is evil, what it seeks and what it avoids, and what is that Reason which distinguishes between the desirable and the undesirable, and thereby tames the madness of our desires and calms the violence of our fears. [Seneca]" - Stoics, The Stoics or Stoicism NULL
"And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude." - Thomas Jefferson
"Enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more.. .a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." - Thomas Jefferson
"The days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally before us. If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is completely forgotten by the next morning." - Thomas Jefferson
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." - Thomas Jefferson
"Sunrise: it is an event that calls forth solemn music in the very depths of man’s nature, as if one’s whole being had to attune itself to the cosmos and praise God for the new day, praise him in the name of all the creatures that ever were or will ever be. I look at the rising sun and feel that now upon me falls the responsibility of seeing what all my ancestors have seen…praising God before me. Whether or not they praised him then, for themselves, they must praise him now in me. When the sun rises each one of us is summoned by the living and the dead to praise God." - Thomas Merton
"We understand much of what is involved in leadership -- vision, strategy, cooperation, integrity, trust, intuition, goal-setting, motivation, mobilization, productivity, and renewal. Yet paradoxically, however much we admire, appreciate, and recognize it, precise definitions remain elusive. Yet we do know that leadership is all about making things (good and bad) happen that might not otherwise happen and preventing things from happening that ordinarily would happen. It is the process of getting people to work together to achieve common goals and aspirations. Leadership is a process that helps people transform intentions into positive action, visions into reality. Leadership involves the infusion of vision, direction, and purpose into an enterprise and entails mobilizing both people and resources to undertake and achieve shared ends." - Thomas Cronin, fully Thomas Edward Cronin
"Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." - William Henley, fully William Ernest Henley
"Peach Blossom Journey - Fishing boat pursue water love hill spring Both banks peach blossom arrive ancient river crossing Travel look red tree not know far Travel furthest blue stream not see people Mountain mouth stealthy move begin cave profound Mountain open spacious view spin flat land Far see one place accumulate cloud tree Nearby join 1000 homes scattered flower bamboo Firewood person first express Han surname given name Reside person not change Qin clothing clothing Reside person together live Wu Ling source Still from outside outside build field orchard Moon bright pine below room pen quiet Sun through cloud middle chicken dog noisy Surprise hear common visitor contend arrive gather Compete lead back home ask all town At brightness alley alley sweep blossom begin Approach dusk fisher woodman via water return Beginning reason evade earth leave person among Change ask god immortal satisfy not return Gorge inside who know be human affairs World middle far gaze sky cloud hill Not doubt magic place hard hear see Dust heart not exhaust think country country Beyond hole not decide away hill water Leave home eventually plan far travel spread Self say pass through old not lost Who know peak gully now arrive change Now only mark entrance hill deep Blue stream how many times reach cloud forest Spring come all over be peach blossom water Not know immortal source what place search A fisher's boat chased the water into the coveted hills, Both banks were covered in peach blossom at the ancient river crossing. He knew not how far he sailed, gazing at the reddened trees, He travelled to the end of the blue stream, seeing no man on the way. Then finding a crack in the hillside, he squeezed through the deepest of caves, And beyond the mountain a vista opened of flat land all about! In the distance he saw clouds and trees gathered together, Nearby amongst a thousand homes flowers and bamboo were scattered. A wood-gatherer was the first to speak a Han-era name, The inhabitants' dress was unchanged since the time of Qin. The people lived together on uplands above Wu Ling river, Apart from the outside world they laid their fields and plantations. Below the pines and the bright moon, all was quiet in the houses, When the sun started to shine through the clouds, the chickens and dogs gave voice. Startled to find a stranger amongst them, the people jostled around, They competed to invite him in and ask about his home. As brightness came, the lanes had all been swept of blossom, By dusk, along the water the fishers and woodsmen returned. To escape the troubled world they had first left men's society, They live as if become immortals, no reason now to return. In that valley they knew nothing of the way we live outside, From within our world we gaze afar at empty clouds and hills. Who would not doubt that magic place so hard to find, The fisher's worldly heart could not stop thinking of his home. He left that land, but its hills and rivers never left his heart, Eventually he again set out, and planned to journey back. By memory, he passed along the way he'd taken before, Who could know the hills and gullies had now completely changed? Now he faced only the great mountain where he remembered the entrance, Each time he followed the clear stream, he found only cloud and forest. Spring comes, and all again is peach blossom and water, No-one knows how to reach that immortal place." - Wang Wei, aka Wang Youcheng
"How sweet I roam’d from field to field And tasted all the summer’s pride, Till I the Prince of Love beheld Who in the sunny beams did glide! He show’d me lilies for my hair, And blushing roses for my brow; He led me through his gardens fair Where all his golden pleasures grow. With sweet May dews my wings were wet, And Phoebus fir’d my vocal rage; He caught me in his silken net, And shut me in his golden cage. He loves to sit and hear me sing, Then, laughing, sports and plays with me; Then stretches out my golden wing, And mocks my loss of liberty." - William Blake
"The Universal Family - Our Wars are wars of life, and wounds of love, With intellectual spears, and long wingèd arrows of thought. Mutual in one another’s love and wrath all renewing, We live as One Man: for, contracting our Infinite senses, We behold multitude; or, expanding, we behold as One, As One Man all the Universal Family; and that One Man We call Jesus the Christ. And He in us, and we in Him, Live in perfect harmony in Eden, the land of Life, Giving, receiving, and forgiving each other’s trespasses. He is the Good Shepherd, He is the Lord and Master; He is the Shepherd of Albion, He is all in all, In Eden, in the garden of God, and in heavenly Jerusalem. If we have offended, forgive us! take not vengeance against us! " - William Blake
"The Worship of God - It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend. The man who permits you to injure him deserves your vengeance; He also will receive it. Go, Spectre! obey my most secret desire, Which thou knowest without my speaking. Go to these Friends of Righteousness, Tell them to obey their Humanities, and not pretend Holiness, When they are murderers. As far as my Hammer and Anvil permit, Go tell them that the Worship of God is honouring His gifts In other men, and loving the greatest men best, each according To his Genius, which is the Holy Ghost in Man: there is no other God than that God who is the intellectual fountain of Humanity. He who envies or calumniates, which is murder and cruelty, Murders the Holy One. Go tell them this, and overthrow their cup, Their bread, their altar-table, their incense, and their oath, Their marriage and their baptism, their burial and consecration. I have tried to make friends by corporeal gifts, but have only Made enemies; I never made friends but by spiritual gifts, By severe contentions of friendship, and the burning fire of thought. He who would see the Divinity must see Him in His Children, One first in friendship and love, then a Divine Family, and in the midst Jesus will appear. So he who wishes to see a Vision, a perfect Whole, Must see it in its Minute Particulars, organized; and not as thou, O Fiend of Righteousness, pretendest! thine is a disorganized And snowy cloud, brooder of tempests and destructive War. You smile with pomp and rigour, you talk of benevolence and virtue; I act with benevolence and virtue, and get murder’d time after time; You accumulate Particulars, and murder by analysing, that you May take the aggregate, and you call the aggregate Moral Law; And you call that swell’d and bloated Form a Minute Particular. But General Forms have their vitality in Particulars; and every Particular is a Man." - William Blake
"This dust was once the man, gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand, against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age, was saves the Union of these States." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
"To be in any form, what is that? (round and round we go, all of us, and ever come back thither,) if nothing lay more develop'd the quahung in it's callous shell were enough. Mine is no callous shell. I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or stop, they seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me. I merely stir, press, feel with my fingers, and I am happy, to touch my person to someone else's is about as much as I can stand." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
"When I heard the learn’d astronomer; when the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; when I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; when I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, how soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, in the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, look’d up in perfect silence at the stars." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
"A solitude is the audience-chamber of God." - Walter Savage Landor