This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL
The primary dispositions are innate; the acquired ones, like virtue and the rest, depend on the instruments. The uterine germ and the rest belong to the effect.
Action |
Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL
A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.
Consequences | Good | Hell | Man |
The inborn geniality of some people amounts to genius.
Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL
If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?
Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL
And from this divergence it follows that the Self (purusha) is witness, solitary, neutral, spectator and non-agent.
Mind |
Without thinking that death will come, I am absorbed in plans for the future. After having done the many and futile activities of this life I will leave utterly empty-handed. What a blunder; as I will certainly need an understanding of the excellent Dharma (proper conduct). So why not practice now?
Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL
Like the visible means, the revealed mode is also tainted, destructive and excessive. Different from these and superior is that method consisting in discriminative knowledge of the manifest, the unmanifest and the knower.
God, in His wrath, has not left this world to the mercy of the subtlest dialectician; and all arguments are happily transitory in their effect when they contradict the primal intuitions of conscience and the inborn sentiments of the heart.
There is a place for each individual in the world, but you must seek and find where your place is and where you fit in. If you are afraid to take the responsibility of bringing in the new, do not try to stop those souls who are willing to do it. Realize that those souls who have been trained and inspired to undertake this task will do so, for it is their work. Find your rightful place in the whole vast plan, and if you are not in the front line do not let it disturb you. Remember, all sorts of people are needed to make up the whole. Simply accept your specific work and do what you know you have to do wholeheartedly, and allow those souls who have been placed in the position of leadership and responsibility to go ahead. Give them your full backing and complete loyalty; they need it and appreciate it. Lift up your heart in deep love praise and gratitude for them, and always give of your very best.
Eldridge Cleaver, fully Leroy Eldridge Cleaver
Ah, what sights and sounds and pain lie beneath that mist. And we had thought that our hard climb out of that cruel valley led to some cool, green and peaceful, sunlit place---but it's all jungle here, a wild and savage wilderness that's overrun with ruins. But put on your crown, my Queen, and we will build a New City on these ruins.
Impression | Memory | Mind | Spirit | Unhappiness | Will |
The first thing people have got to do is to stop believing there's going to be any action anytime soon, ... It's obviously a prime piece of land. It's what's on the land that makes development difficult.
When a teacher of the future comes to point out to the youth of America how the highest rewards of intellect and devotion can be gained, he may say to them, not by subtlety and intrigue not by wire pulling and demagoguery not by the arts of popularity not by skill and shiftiness in following expediency but by being firm in devotion to the principles of manhood and the application of morals and the courage of righteousness in the public life of our country by being a man without guile and without fear, without selfishness, and with devotion to duty, devotion to his country.
Better | Character | Evil | Folly | Government | Ignorance | Indifference | Indolence | Knowledge | Law | Life | Life | Little | Mind | Nature | Responsibility | Suffering | Time | World | Wrong | Government |
Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen
Spezia offered Leopold almost nothing: his precocity devoured itself there, rejecting the steep sunny coast and nibbling blue edge of the sea that had drowned Shelley. His spirit became crustacean under douches of culture and mild philosophic chat from his Uncle Dee, who was cultured rather than erudite.
Mind |
I repulse death with all my strength. If I accepted it, I would be a murderer.
The question has been asked, 'What is a woman?' A woman is a person who makes choices. A woman is a dreamer. A woman is a planner. A woman is a maker, and a molder. A woman is a person who makes choices. A woman builds bridges. A woman makes children and makes cars. A woman writes poetry and songs. A woman is a person who makes choices. You cannot even simply become a mother anymore. You must choose motherhood. Will you choose change? Can you become its vanguard?
Nevertheless we all feel that it is indeed very reasonable and important to ask ourselves how we should try to conduct our lives. The answer is, in my opinion: satisfaction of the desires and needs of all, as far as this can be achieved, and achievement of harmony and beauty in the human relationships. This presupposes a good deal of conscious thought and of self-education. It is undeniable that the enlightened Greeks and the old Oriental sages had achieved a higher level in this all-important field than what is alive in our schools and universities.
Admiration | Little | Morality | Spirit |