This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The secular or freethinking humanist looks into the self for guidance; response to need comes from deep human feelings of compassion, concern for others, and a desire to help. The freethinker is not motivated by a divine command to act, but rather by personal humanistic response to pain, loneliness, hunger, and homelessness. Benevolent actions are not accompanied by a need to convert or indoctrinate, but rather flow from deep human wellsprings of empathy and a desire to improve the condition of the world.
Compassion | Desire | Empathy | Feelings | Guidance | Hunger | Loneliness | Looks | Need | Pain | Self | World |
The art of peace does not rely on weapons or brute force to succeed; instead we put ourselves in tune with the universe, maintain peace in our own realms, nurture life, and prevent death and destruction. The true meaning of the term samurai is one who serves and adheres to the power of love.
Art | Death | Force | Life | Life | Love | Meaning | Peace | Power | Universe | Weapons | Art |
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
The cause of the breakdowns of civilizations is not to be found in loss of command over the human environment, as measured by the encroachment of alien human forces... The most that an alien enemy has achieved has been to give an expiring suicide his coup de grace.
Reason command us far more imperiously than a master; in disobeying the former, fools.
Reason |
The author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he has published, if he does not command success, has at least deserved it.
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
Wealth |
There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
Forbearance | Virtue | Virtue |
There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
Forbearance | Virtue | Virtue |
The source of man's creativeness is in his deficiencies; he creates to compensate himself for what he lacks. He became Homo faber - a maker of weapons and tools - to compensate for his lack of specialized organs. He became Homo ludens - a player, tinker, and artist - to compensate for his lack of inborn skills. He became a speaking animal to compensate for his lack of the telepathic faculty by which animals communicate with each other. He became a thinker to compensate for the ineffectualness of his instincts.
How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?
The happiness of the human race in this world does not consist in our being devoid of passions, but in our learning to command them.
Human race | Learning | Race | World | Happiness |
Henry Kissinger, fully Henry Alfred Kissinger
One of the paradoxical lessons of the nuclear age is that at the moment when we are acquiring an unparalleled command over nature, we are forced to realize as never before that the problems of survival will have to be solved above all in the minds of men. In this task the fate of the mammoth and the dinosaur may serve as a warning that brute strength does not always supply the mechanism in the struggle for survival.
Age | Fate | Men | Nature | Problems | Strength | Struggle | Survival | Warning | Will | Fate |