This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Close friends and relatives, while not meaning to do so, often handicap one through "opinions" and sometimes through ridicule, which is meant to be humorous. Thousands of men and women carry inferiority complexes with them all through life, because some well-meaning but ignorant person destroyed their confidence through "opinions" or ridicule.
Confidence | Inferiority | Meaning | Men | Friends |
I can worship Nature, and that fulfills my need for miracles and beauty. Art gives a spiritual depth to existence -- I can find worlds bigger and deeper than my own in music, paintings, and books. And from my friends and family I receive the highest benediction, emotional contact, and personal affirmation. I can bow before the works of Man, from buildings to babies, and that fulfills my need for wonder. I can believe in the sanctity of Life, and that becomes the Revealed Word, to live my life as I believe it should be, not as I'm told to by self-appointed guides.
Art | Existence | Family | Life | Life | Miracles | Need | Receive | Worship | Art | Friends |
Nelson Mandela, fully Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer.
Friends |
Ouida, pseudonym of Maria Louise Ramé, preferred to be called Marie Louise de la Ramée NULL
Could we see when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye.
Friends |
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
The relationship that exists between friends is the grandest of human loves. Friendly love is pure, because it is without compulsion. One freely chooses to love his friends; he is not bound by instinct. The love that manifests in friendship can exist between man and woman, woman and woman, man and man. But in the love of friendship, there is no sexual attraction. One must practice celibacy and absolutely forget sex if one wants to know divine love through friendship; then friendship nurtures the cultivation of divine love.
Cultivation | Love | Man | Practice | Relationship | Wants | Woman | Friendship | Friends |
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Making others happy, through kindness of speech and sincerity of right advice, is a sign of true greatness. To hurt another soul by sarcastic words, looks, or suggestions, is despicable. Sarcasm draws out the rebellious spirit and anger in the wrongdoer. Loving suggestions bring out the repentence in him. Repentence consists in thoroughly understanding one's own error and in abandoning it. Friendship is pure by nature. When you have a lilly in your hands, how can you crush it? When you love a person dearly, how can you hurt him, even though he may be wrong? Divine love is unlimited and infinite. When two or more persons are friends always, no matter what happens, that is an expression of divine love, of divine friendship.
Anger | Error | Kindness | Love | Right | Sarcasm | Sincerity | Soul | Speech | Spirit | Understanding | Friendship | Friends |
Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Sarcasm draws out the rebellious spirit and anger in the wrongdoer. Loving suggestions bring out the repentence in him. Repentence consists in thoroughly understanding one’s own error and in abandoning it. Friendship is pure by nature. When you have a lilly in your hands, how can you crush it? When you love a person dearly, how can you hurt him, even though he may be wrong? Divine love is unlimited and infinite. When two or more persons are friends always, no matter what happens, that is an expression of divine love, of divine friendship.
Anger | Error | Love | Spirit | Understanding | Friendship | Friends |
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
The treasure of friendship is your richest possession, because it goes with you beyond this life. All the true friends you have made you will meet again in the home of the Father, for real love is never lost.
Love | Will | Friendship | Friends |
Peggy Noonan, born Margaret Ellen Noonan
Candor is a compliment; it implies equality. It's how true friends talk.
Friends |
Man struggles to survive, not to succumb… Learning something means coming into contact with a world of which you know nothing. In order to learn, you must be humble… Many of us are returning from a long journey during which we were forced to search for things that were of no interest to us. Now we realize that they were false. But this return cannot be made without pain, because we have been away for a long time and feel that we are strangers in our own land. It will take some time to find the friends who also left, and the places where our roots and treasures lie. But this will happen… Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place… Miracles only happen if you believe in miracles.
Journey | Learning | Means | Miracles | Order | People | Search | Time | Will | World | Friends |
Pema Chödrön, born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown
Compassion starts with making friends with ourselves -- particularly with our poisons.
Friends |
Only a man who is happy can create happiness in others… Only two things can reveal life's great secrets: suffering and love… Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.
All life is a dream. But whether it be dream or truths to do well is what matters. If it be truth, for truth's sake. If not, then to gain friends for the time when we awaken.
Don't fear the light within. May it ignite the Sacred Flame in your soul… Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart… Don't listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people's failures… Don't live every day as if it were your last. Live every day as if it were your first… Don't place your dreams in the hands of those whom can destroy them.
I learned something recently: our true friends are those are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with the sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives. When things were bad last year, various people I had never ever seen before turned up to ‘console’ me. I hate that… I learned that the search for God is a Dark Night, that Faith is a Dark Night. And that’s hardly a surprise really, because for us each day is a dark night. None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, and yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith… I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things. I learned that many alchemists realized their destinies, and wound up discovering the Soul of the World, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Elixir of Life. But above all, I learned that these things are all so simple they could be written on the surface of an emerald.
Day | Faith | God | Good | Hate | Language | People | Search | Soul | Suffering | World | God | Friends | Understand |
Don't be like those people who believe in positive thinking and tell themselves that they're loved and strong and capable. You don't need to do that because you know it already. And when you doubt it — which happens, I think, quite often at this stage of evolution — do as I suggested. Instead of trying to prove that you're better than you think, just laugh. Laugh at your worries and insecurities. View your anxieties with humor. It will be difficult at first, but you'll gradually get used to it. Now go back and meet all those people who think you know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything; it's merely a question of believing… Don't explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you… Don't think about what you'll tell people afterward. The time is here and now. Make the most of it… Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.
Better | Doubt | Evolution | Need | People | Question | Thinking | Time | Waste | Will | Friends | Think |
There are three kinds of enemy: the enemy himself, the friends of your enemy, and the enemies of your friends.
Peter F. Drucker, fully Peter Ferdinand Drucker
Leadership is not magnetic personality — that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people — that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.
People | Personality | Vision | Friends | Leadership |