This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Sarada Devi, fully Sri Sarada Devi, born Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya
If you want peace, do not see the faults of others; instead, see your own faults.
Every day we shall see about us evidence of human pettiness, greed, self-centeredness. But if we observe carefully we also see human nobility, generosity, self-surrender and genuine religious conviction and action. The cynic remembers only man’s faults – that is why he remains a cynic. The wise man remembers his brother’s virtues. Which shall we choose to remember?
Action | Cynic | Day | Evidence | Generosity | Greed | Man | Nobility | Self | Surrender | Wise |
Its effects on the soul is to be measured neither by the guilt nor by the temporal punishment inexorably fixed, but by that deep sense of loneliness it brings with it.
Guilt | Loneliness | Punishment | Sense | Soul |
Lao Tzu, ne Li Urh, also Laotse, Lao Tse, Lao Tse, Lao Zi, Laozi, Lao Zi, La-tsze
There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition.
The existential concept of guilt adds something even more important than the broadening of the scope of "accountability." Most simply put: one is guilty not only through transgressions against another or against some moral or social code, but one may be guilty of transgression against oneself.
The acceptance of our nature - which does not mean compliant acquiescence in faults that we can remedy - is essential for living a meaningful life, and therefore one that is significant as well.
Acceptance | Life | Life | Nature |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
To have faults and not reform them - that may indeed be called having faults.
Reform |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
The real fault is to have faults and not to amend them.
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
To acknowledge our faults when we are blamed, is modesty; to discover them to one's friends, in ingenuousness, is confidence; but to proclaim them to the world, if one does not take care, is pride.
Care | Confidence | Modesty | Pride | World |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
Men's faults are characteristic. It is by observing a man's faults that one may come to know his virtues.
We easily forget our faults when they are known only to us.
If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noticing them in others.
Pleasure |