This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The earth we live on is so small that even if someone was honored by everyone on our planet it is still insignificant. Also, a person’s lifetime is so short that even if he received honor and approval his entire life, it is so short in comparison with eternity. This is the ultimate success an approval-seeker can hope for, but the reality is that even if you spend you entire life trying to win the approval of others, only a small number of people will know and approve of you. The approval you do gain lasts a very short time and is soon forgotten as if it never was.
Character | Earth | Eternity | Honor | Hope | Life | Life | People | Reality | Success | Time | Will | Approval |
The goal of wisdom is laughter and play - not the kind that one sees in little children who do not yet have the faculty of reason, but the kind that is developed in those who have grown mature through both time and understanding. If someone has experienced the wisdom that can only be heard from oneself, learned from oneself, and created from oneself, he does not merely participate in laughter: he becomes laughter itself.
Character | Children | Laughter | Little | Play | Reason | Time | Understanding | Wisdom |
The essential in this time of moral poverty is to create enthusiasm.
Character | Enthusiasm | Poverty | Time |
Humanity goes on and on almost in despair, hoping some time to find rest and peace and fullness of life in the undefined future, when, in fact, all these and more are here now if we would (could?) only reach out our hand and take them.
Character | Despair | Future | Humanity | Life | Life | Peace | Rest | Time |
Frank Pierson, fully Frank Romer Pierson
The time men spend in trying to impress others they could spend in doing the things by which others would be impressed.
W. D. Ross, fully Sir William David Ross
No act is ever, in virtue of falling under some general description, necessarily actually right... moral acts often (as every one knows) and indeed always (on reflection we must admit) have different characteristics that tend to make them a the same time prima facie right and prima facie wrong; there is probably no act, for instance, which does good to anyone without doing harm to someone else, and vice versa.
Character | Good | Harm | Reflection | Right | Time | Virtue | Virtue | Wrong | Vice |
Rashi, born Shlomo ben Yitzchok, aka Salomon Isaacides, Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki NULL
Each person is a one time phenomenon, an occurrence that has never been before and will never be again. You have a unique blend of character traits and personality. You are unique in your particular family constellation, born in a specific time of history and in a specific environment. This uniqueness gives you great importance. Only you can accomplish your unique life tasks.
Character | Family | History | Life | Life | Personality | Time | Unique | Will |
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
All weaknesses are just fabrications of mind. If I am not happy with myself, how can you make me happy? It takes time to see that my unhappiness stems from myself and not from you. We love to blame others as the source of our unhappiness because that is how we feel good about ourselves. But when we go deeper, we realize that no one in the whole world can make us happy or unhappy. It depends on our own integrity.
Blame | Character | Good | Happy | Integrity | Love | Mind | Time | Unhappiness | World |
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
The core of attunement is to do what you want to do and like to do; to do your best; and at the same time to celebrate yourself for doing your best. Your best could be doing the dishes.