This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Death signifies the surpassing of the profane, non-sanctified condition, the condition of the “natural man,” ignorant of religion and blind to the spiritual. The mystery of initiation discloses to the neophyte, little by little, the true dimensions of existence; by introducing him to the sacred, the mystery obliges him to assume the responsibilities of a man." - Mircea Eliade
"Sacred theology is superior to philosophy, both theoretically and practically; theoretically, because it is more perfect knowledge of God and His creatures; practically, because moral philosophy is insufficient to direct man to God as his last end." - Mortimer J. Adler, fully Mortimer Jerome Adler
"The highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!" - Nikos Kazantzakis
"Our civilization has been founded on the notion of criticism: there is nothing sacred or untouchable except the freedom to think. Without criticism, that is to say, without rigor and experimentation, there is no science; without criticism there is no art or literature. I would also say that without criticism there is no healthy society." - Octavio Paz, born Octavio Paz Lozano
"Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility." - Oprah Winfrey, born Oprah Gail Winfrey
"No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker with no past at my back." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Nothing is at last sacred by the integrity of your own mind." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no Past at my back." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Doing a straight-forward, clear-cut task that has a beginning and an end balances out the complexity-without-end that often vexes the rest of my life. Sacred simplicity." - Robert Fulghum, fully Robert Lee Fulghum
"One laugh of a child will make the holiest day more sacred still." - Robert Ingersoll, fully Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll
"No day can be so sacred but that the laugh of a little child will make it holier still." - Robert Ingersoll, fully Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll
"To find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the sacred in the profane, sounds appealing in theory... Everyday spirituality requires mindfulness, an alert quality of mind that nonjudgmentally observes what happens in each moment. When mindfulness is present, a deep, penetrating awareness develops that gives insight into the world and ourselves. This penetrating quality of mind enables us to respond to the present with greater spontaneity and freedom." - Ronald S. Miller
"When a man follows the way of the world, or the way of the flesh, or the way of tradition (i.e. when he believes in religious rites and the letter of the scriptures, as though they were intrinsically sacred) knowledge of Reality cannot arise in him." - Adi Shankara, aka Śaṅkara Bhagavatpādācārya and Ādi Śaṅkarācārya
"At the heart of all religions is the certainty that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve and realize it." - Sogyal Rinpoche
"Nature… is a Volume written in celestial hieroglyphs, in a true Sacred-writing; of which even Prophets are happy that they can read here a line and there a line." - Thomas Carlyle
"To the soul, the ordinary is sacred and the everyday is the primary source of religion." - Thomas Moore
"No matter how burning the thirst, we must always take the time to honor the gift of water, for it is sacred. It is a gift of life. It is in the times of dire thirst, when the body craves the water the most, we should especially take the time for prayer and thanksgiving... If you do not honor and cherish the waters, then how can you ever expect others to?" - Tom Brown, Jr.
"The potential space between baby and mother, between child and family, between individual and society or the world, depends on experience which loeads to trust. It can be looked upon as sacred to the individual in that it is here that the individual experiences creative living." - D. W. Winicott, fully Donald Woods Winnicott
"It is stated in the sacred Zohar that "When the tzaddik departs he is to be found in all worlds more than in his lifetime." Now this needs to be understood. For, granted that he is to be found increasingly in the supernal worlds, because he ascends to there; but how can he be found more in this world? ... This can be explained based on [the maxim] that the life of a tzaddik is not a physical life but a spiritual life, consisting wholly of faith, awe, and love of G‑d... While the tzaddik was alive on earth, these three qualities were contained in their physical vessel and garment (i.e. the body) on the plane of physical space... All his disciples receive but a reflection of these attributes, a ray radiating beyond this vessel by means of his holy utterances and thoughts... But after his passing... whoever is close to him can receive a [far loftier dimension] of these three qualities, since they are no longer confined within a [material] vessel, nor bounded by physical space... Thus it is very easy for his disciples to receive their part of their master's quintessential spirit, each according to the level of his loving attachment (hitkashrut) and closeness to the tzaddik during his lifetime and after his death." - Shneur Zalman of Liadi
"For peoples, generally, their story of the universe and the human role within the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value. Only through this story of how the Universe came to be in the beginning and how it came to be as it is does a person come to appreciate the meaning of life or to derive the psychic energy needed to deal effectively with those crisis moments that occur in the life of the individual and in the life of the society. Such a story . . . communicates the most sacred of mysteries... story not only interprets the past, it also guides and inspires our shaping of the future." -
"The universe itself is the primary sacred community. All human religion should be considered as participation in the religious aspect of the universe itself. It is false to say that humanity is the most excellent being in the universe. The most excellent being in the universe is the universe itself." -
"For peoples, generally, their story of the universe and the human role within the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value. Only through this story of how the Universe came to be in the beginning and how it came to be as it is does a person come to appreciate the meaning of life or to derive the psychic energy needed to deal effectively with those crisis moments that occur in the life of the individual and in the life of the society. Such a story communicates the most sacred of mysteries. Our story not only interprets the past, it also guides and inspires our shaping of the future." -
"The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect. " - Felix Adler
"It is not easy to be sure that being yourself is worth the trouble, but we do know it is our sacred duty." - Florida Scott-Maxwell
"The sacred function can never be hurt by their sayings, if not first reproached by our doings." - Francis Atterbury
"The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires. Thus always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas. We possess only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence which we share and create." - Frank Herbert, formally Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr.
"Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified." - French National Assembly - Declaration of the Rights of Man NULL
"A good war makes sacred any cause. " - Friedrich Nietzsche, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
"It is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts." - George Washington
"Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness." - George William McDonald
"Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished." - Nicholas Black Elk, formally Heȟáka Sápa
"Sacrifice is no longer a matter of doing specifically sacred things on particular occasions, but of sacrificing (making sacred) all we do and all we are." - Herman Hesse
"Underneath all the texts, all the sacred psalms and canticles, these watery varieties of sounds and silences, terrifying, mysterious, whirling and sometimes gestating and gentle must somehow be felt in the pulse, ebb, and flow of the music that sings in me. My new song must float like a feather on the breath of God. " - Hildegard Von Bingen, Blessed Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Hildegard
"What is sacred among one people may be ridiculous in another; and what is despised or rejected by one cultural group, may in a different environment become the cornerstone for a great edifice of strange grandeur and beauty. " - Hu Shih, born Hu Hung-hsing
"Twofold is the fruit of sacred reading, because it either instructs the mind with knowledge or it equips it with morals. It teaches what it delights us to know and what it behooves us to imitate." - Hugh of St. Victor NULL
"I teach you joy, not sadness. I teach you playfulness, not seriousness. I teach you love and laughter, because to me there is nothing more sacred than love and laughter, and there is nothing more prayerful than playfulness. I don't teach you renunciation, as it has been taught down the ages. I teach you: Rejoice, rejoice, and rejoice again! Rejoicing should be the essential core of my sannyasins." - Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh NULL
"A true home is one of the most sacred of places. It is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world’s perils and alarms. It is a resting-place to which at close of day the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow. It is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into discipline and strength, where character is molded. " - J. R. Miller, fully James Russell Miller
"Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that being a natural and unalienable right. To guard a man's house as his castle, to pay public and enforce private debts with the most exact faith, can give no title to invade a man's conscience, which is more sacred than his castle, or to withhold from it that debt of protection for which the public faith is pledged by the very nature and original conditions of the social pact." - James Madison