This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Jules Renard, aka Pierre-Jules Renard
Failure is not our only punishment for laziness: there is also the success of others.
Failure | Laziness | Punishment | Success |
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
No degree of prosperity could justify the accumulation of large highly toxic substances which nobody knows how to make “safe” and which remain an incalculable danger to the whole of creation for historical or even geological ages. To do such a thing is a transgression against life itself, a transgression infinitely more serious than any crime ever perpetrated by man.
Crime | Danger | Justify | Life | Life | Man | Prosperity | Safe | Danger |
Seneca the Younger, aka Seneca or Lucius Annaeus Seneca NULL
We are made not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?… Deeds that would be punished by loss of life when committed in secret are praised by us because uniformed generals have carried them out.
A new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively. The existing one is maintained by the Press, by propaganda, by organization, and by financial and other influences which are at its disposal. This unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness for new truth.
Eric Sevareid, fully Arnold Eric Sevareid
No man was ever more than about nine meals away from crime or suicide.
William H. Whyte, Jr., fully William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte
Nonconformity is an empty goal and rebellion against prevailing opinion merely because it is prevailing should no more be praised than acquiescence to it. Indeed, it is often a mask for cowardice, and few are more pathetic than those who flaunt outer differences to expiate their inner surrender.
The teachings of economics say that anything in oversupply has no value; and one of the greatest things in oversupply has always been the simple opinion shared by others.
Philippa Foot, fully Philippa Ruth Foot, née Bosanquet
One of the things a wise man knows and a foolish man does not is that such things as social position, wealth, and the good opinion of the world, are too dearly bought at the cost of health or friendship or family ties.
Cost | Family | Good | Health | Man | Opinion | Position | Wealth | Wise | World | Friendship |
In deciding what course of action is moral, you should act as if there were no God. You should act as if there were no threat of earthly punishment or reward. You should be a person of good character because it is right to be such a person.
Action | Character | God | Good | Punishment | Reward | Right |
The truly moral person is the one who does the right thing without any promise of reward or threat of punishment - without engaging in a cost-benefit analysis.
Cost | Promise | Punishment | Reward | Right |
Petro G. Grigorenko, or Petro Hryhorovych Hryhorenko or Pyotr Grigoryevich Grigorenko
Concealment of the historical truth is a crime against the people.
Concealment | Crime | People | Truth |
The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: the ruthless, competitive, cunning, opportunistic, acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment – or at least much handicap – to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love of justice, and a concern for those in need.
Capitalism | Compassion | Cunning | Giving | Honesty | Justice | Little | Love | Need | Play | Punishment | Reward | Work |