This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
I recognize no moral law in politics. Politics is a game, in which every sort of trick is permissible, and in which the rules are constantly being changed by the players to suit themselves.
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, known as Dean Stanley
Insist on reading the great books, on marking the great events of the world. Then the little books can take care of themselves, and the trivial incidents of passing politics and diplomacy may perish with the using.
Books | Care | Diplomacy | Events | Little | Politics | Reading | World |
When Abraham Lincoln was a young man he ran for the Legislature in Illinois and was badly swamped. Next he entered business, failed and spent seventeen years of his life paying up the debts of a worthless partner. He was in love with a beautiful young woman to whom he became engagedand then, she died. Later he married a woman who was a constant burden to him. Entering politics again, he was badly defeated for Congress. He failed to get an appointment to the U.S. Land Office. He was badly defeated for the U.S. Senate. In 1856 he became a candidate for the Vice-Presidency and was again defeated. In 1858 he was defeated by Douglas. One failure after another, bad failures, great setbacks. In the face of all this he eventually became one of the country's greatest men, if not the greatest. When you think of a series of setbacks like this, doesn't it make you feel small to become discouraged, just because you think that you're having a hard time in life?
Business | Failure | Land | Life | Life | Love | Man | Men | Office | Politics | Time | Woman | Failure | Think |
Joy and sorrow are not ideas of the mind but affections of the will, and so they do not lie in the domain of memory. We cannot recall our joys and sorrows; by which I mean we cannot renew them. We can recall only the ideas that accompanied them; and, in particular, the things we were led to say; and these form a gauge of our feelings at the time. Hence our memory of joys and sorrows is always imperfect, and they become a matter of indifference to us as soon as they are over.
Feelings | Ideas | Indifference | Joy | Memory | Mind | Sorrow | Time | Will |
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
In politics nothing is contemptible.
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
Nine times out of ten a man’s politics can be predicted from the way in which he makes his living.
Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism.
The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.
Dignity | Indifference |
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Little | Magnanimity | Politics | Wisdom |
Frédéric Bastiat, fully Claude Frédéric Bastiat
A science of economics must be developed before a science of politics can be logically formulated. Essentially, economics is the science of determining whether the interests of human beings are harmonious or antagonistic. This must be known before a science of politics can be formulated to determine the proper functions of government.
Economics | Government | Politics | Science |
George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair
In our age there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics.” All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
Realizing that no simple formulas apply to everyone, we develop the courage to live a unique spiritual life, in our own idiosyncratic way. While archetypal patterns exist to guide seekers, in the West individuals can find their won way within these deeper patterns by honoring their unique backgrounds, temperaments, values and creative capacities... We commit ourselves to passionate action in the world, without becoming overly attached to the success or failure of our endeavors... In spiritual maturity, recognizing that such an attitude of indifference stems from a fear of life, we commit to our spouses, professions, and social action, developing compassion and equanimity through a balanced engagement with life.
Action | Compassion | Courage | Equanimity | Failure | Fear | Indifference | Life | Life | Success | Unique | World | Engagement | Failure |
Wine heightens indifference into love, love into jealousy, and jealousy into madness. It often turns the good-natured man into an idiot, and the choleric into an assassin. It give bitterness to resentment, it makes vanity insupportable, and displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity.
Bitterness | Good | Indifference | Jealousy | Little | Love | Madness | Man | Resentment | Soul |
Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death.
Death | Desire | Indifference | Life | Life |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
Courage is nothing less than indifference to hardship and pain.
Courage | Indifference | Nothing | Pain | Hardship |