This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Self-control is not worth a farthing unless we build up a great self worth controlling.
Control | Self | Self-control | Worth |
Guru, God, and Self are One.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, native form is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály
It is not a circular motion that returns to where one started, but rather, it resembles an ascending spiral, where concern for the self becomes steadily qualified by less selfish goals and concern for others becomes ore individualistic and personally meaningful.
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed.
Doubt | Heart | Insincerity | Life | Life | Man | Self | Obstacle |
Panchatantra or The Panchatantra NULL
For the sake of a family an individual may be sacrificed; for the sake of a village a family may be sacrificed; for the sake of a nation a village may be sacrificed; for the sake of one's self the world may be sacrificed.
Family | Individual | Self | World |
None has more frequent conversations with disagreeable self than the man of pleasure; his enthusiasms are but few and transient; his appetites, like angry creditors, are continually making fruitless demands for what he is unable to pay; and the greater his former pleasures, the more strong his regret, the more impatient his expectations. A life of pleasure is, therefore, the most unpleasing life.
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Learn to see God in all persons, of whatever race or creed. You will know what divine love is when you begin to feel your oneness with every human being, not before. In mutual service we forget the little self and glimpse the one measureless self, the spirit that unifies all men.
Creed | God | Little | Love | Men | Oneness | Race | Self | Service | Spirit | Will | God |
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Truth is no theory, no speculative system of philosophy. Truth is exact correspondence with Reality. For man, truth is unshakable knowledge of his real nature, his Self as soul.
Knowledge | Man | Nature | Philosophy | Reality | Self | Soul | System | Truth |
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Happiness lies in making others happy, in forsaking self-interest to bring joy to others... To live for self is the source of all misery.
Happy | Joy | Self | Self-interest |
The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is of all things the most shameful and vile.
Self |
The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others.
The self is a social construct, mutually defined with and through other people.
Robert Kennedy, fully Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of the rest or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance... Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world that yields most painfully to change.
Battle | Bravery | Censure | Change | Courage | Daring | Energy | Hope | Injustice | Injustice | Intelligence | Man | Oppression | Rest | Society | Time | World |
Intimacy - the willing revelation of self and absorption in another is a rare thing... those who do tend to view it as a fait accompli rather than as a communal being in need of constant renewal... True intimacy is a human constant... Intimacy is to love what concentration is to work: a simultaneous drawing together of attention and release of energy.
Attention | Energy | Love | Need | Revelation | Self | Work |
We are dominated by everything with which our self is identified. We can dominate and control everything from which we disidentify ourselves. The normal mistake we all make is to identify ourselves with some content of consciousness rather than with consciousness itself. Some people get their identity from their feelings, others from their thoughts, others from their social roles. But this identification with a part of the personality destroys the freedom which comes from the experience of the pure “I”.
Robert Kennedy, fully Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy
Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.
Battle | Bravery | Censure | Change | Courage | Intelligence | Society | World |