This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
We seem to believe that our daily lives have nothing to do with the situation of the world. But if we do not change our daily lives, we cannot change the world. Drinking a cup of tea, picking up a newspaper, using toilet paper, all these things have to do with peace. Because nonviolence can be called awareness, we must be aware of what we are, of who we are, and of what we are doing.
Thomas Erskine, aka Thomas Erskine of Linlathen
All religion is in the change from He to Thou. It is a mere abstraction as long as it is He. Only with the Thou we know God.
Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
Change |
Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, of habits devil, is angel yet in this, that to the use of actions fair and good he likewise gives a frock or livery that aptly is put on. Refrain tonight, and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence; the next more easy; for use almost can change the stamp of nature.
Wilferd Peterson, fully Wilferd Arlan Peterson
Change demands self-discipline... Change requires the substituting of new habits for old. You mold your character and your future by your thoughts... Change can be realized through conscious evolution. Moment by moment, day by day, concentrate on becoming the man you want to be.
Change | Character | Day | Discipline | Evolution | Future | Man | Self |
Refrain to-night, and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence; the next more easy; for use almost can change the stamp of nature.
Abstinence | Change | Nature |
Wilferd Peterson, fully Wilferd Arlan Peterson
Prayer does not change God, it changes us. It deepens insight, increases intuitive perceptions, expands consciousness. It transforms personality. Prayer opens doors to let in God and let out self, to let in love and let out hate, to let in faith and let out fear. Prayer helps us to find ourselves. By praying not to get more, but to be more, we discover a way to serve, a purpose for which to live, a dream to make real... Prayer is thinking and thanking. It is thinking of our many blessings and accepting them with a thankful spirit.
Blessings | Change | Consciousness | Faith | Fear | God | Hate | Insight | Love | Personality | Prayer | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Spirit | Thinking | God |
Nothing the Great Mystery placed in the land of the Indian pleased the white man, and nothing escaped his transforming hand. Wherever forests have not been mowed down, wherever the animal is recessed in their quiet protection, wherever the earth is not bereft of four-footed life - that to him is an “unbroken wilderness.” But, because for the Lakota there was no wilderness, because nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly, Lakota philosophy was healthy - free from fear and dogmatism. And here I find the great distinction between the faith of the Indian and the white man. Indian faith sought the harmony of man with his surrounding; the other sought the dominance of surrounding. In sharing, in loving all and everything, one people naturally found a due portion of the thing they sought, while, in fearing, the other found need of conquest. For one man the world was full of beauty; for the other it was a place of sin and ugliness to be endured until he went to another world, there to become a creature of wings, half-man and half-bird. Forever one man directed his Mystery to change the world He had made; forever this man pleaded with Him to chastise the wicked ones; and forever he implored his God to send His light to earth. Small wonder this man could not understand the other. But the old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart, away from nature, become hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence.
Beauty | Change | Children | Conquest | Distinction | Earth | Faith | Fear | God | Harmony | Heart | Influence | Land | Life | Life | Light | Man | Mystery | Nature | Need | Nothing | People | Philosophy | Quiet | Respect | Sin | Wise | Wonder | World | Respect | God | Old | Understand |
A teacher who tends to lower the self-esteem and confidence of his students should either change this tendency or change professions. One of the most important lessons an educator can convey to students is that they have inherent worth and should strive to utilize their potential.
Change | Confidence | Esteem | Important | Self | Self-esteem | Worth | Teacher |
Émile Durkheim, fully David Émile Durkheim
One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature. When one feels such pleasure in non-existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.
Change | Contemplation | Existence | Inclination | Nature | Non-existence | Pleasure | Contemplation |
David Bohm, fully David Joseph Bohm
A change of meaning is necessary to change this world politically, economically and socially. But that change must begin with the individual; it must change for him... if meaning is a key part of reality, then, once society, the individual and relationships are seen to mean something different a fundamental change has taken place.
David Eli Lilienthal, "Mr. TVA"
Whether happiness or unhappiness, freedom or slavery, in short whether good or evil results from an improved environment depends largely upon how the change has been brought about, upon the methods by which the physical results have been reached, and in what spirit and for what purpose the fruits of that change are used. Because a higher standard of living, a greater productiveness and a command over nature are not good in and of themselves do not mean that we cannot make good of them, that they cannot be a source of inner strength.
Change | Evil | Freedom | Good | Nature | Purpose | Purpose | Slavery | Spirit | Strength | Unhappiness | Happiness |
I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
Edward Bernays, fully Edward Louis Bernays
It is sometimes possible to change the attitudes of millions but impossible to change the attitude of one man.
Change |
D. H. Lawrence, fully David Herbert "D.H." Lawrence
The Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.
Change | Equity | Ethics | Justice | Principles |