This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Those who have attained things worth having in this world have worked while others idled, have persevered while others gave up in despair, have practiced ...the valuable habits of self-denial, industry, and singleness of purpose.
Despair | Industry | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Self-denial | World | Worth |
Integrity is one of several paths - it distinguishes itself from the others because it is the right path... and the only one upon which you will never get lost.
To repeat what others have said, requires education, to challenge it, requires brains.
Elizabeth Kiss (pronounced "quiche")
Where would we be without prophets, visionaries, nonconformists, ironists, and dissenters? The great ethical traditions, both religious and secular, as well as literature and the arts, are filled with eccentrics - complex characters who challenge, inspire, and irritate those around them. They flaunt conventional wisdom, stubbornly champion new and unsettling ideals, love those whom others deem unlovable, or are themselves considered strange and unlovable.
Challenge | Ideals | Literature | Love | Wisdom |
The habit of being uniformly considerate toward others will bring increased happiness to you
P. D. Premasiri, fully Pahalawattage Don Premasiri
All the progress humanity has made appears to be endangered by the very technological skills that humans have achieved. We live in an age in which the evils that humans inflict on others have reached unparalleled extremes of barbarism.
Ben Stein, fully Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein
We are not responsible for the operation of the universe, and what happens to us is not terribly important. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human being.
Chief Tecumseh, also known as Tecumtha or Tekamthi
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view and demand they respect yours.
Ultimately, what leads to wise choices is love—the attention to others as ends in themselves, as I am an end in myself, not a means to an end. The way love is implemented and practiced is care, which is attending to the true needs of others. So wise choices come about through care.
In the highest love between man and woman, or parent and child, as the person reaches the ultimates of strength, self-esteem, or individuality, so also does he simultaneously merge with the other, lose self-consciousness, and more or less transcend selfishness. The same can happen in the creative moment, in the profound aesthetic experience, in the insight experience…and others which I have generalized as peak experiences.
Aesthetic | Consciousness | Esteem | Experience | Individuality | Insight | Love | Man | Self | Self-esteem | Selfishness | Strength | Woman | Parent |