This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Human dignity… can be achieved only in the field of ethics, and ethical achievement is measured by the degree in which our actions are governed by compassion and love, not by greed and aggressiveness.
Achievement | Compassion | Dignity | Ethics | Greed | Love |
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Human dignity...can be achieved only in the field of ethics, and ethical achievement is measured by the degree in which our actions are governed by compassion and love, not by greed and aggressiveness.
Achievement | Compassion | Dignity | Ethics | Greed | Love |
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum
Man - every man - is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others. He must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing other to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.
Achievement | Ends | Life | Life | Man | Means | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Self-interest | Work | Happiness |
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
The measure of love is compassion; the measure of compassion is kindness.
Compassion | Kindness | Love |
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum
The most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the United States of America was the subordination of society to moral law.
Achievement | Law | Moral law | Society | Society |
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it, the achievement of it must inevitably leave him a prey to boredom.
Achievement | Man | Success |
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.
Achievement | Death | Devotion | Genius | Inspiration | Man | System | Universe |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
Wisdom, compassion and courage - these are three universally recognized moral qualities of man. It matters not in what way men come to the exercise of these moral qualities, the result is one and the same. When a man understands the nature and use of these three moral qualities, he will then understand how to put in order his personal conduct and character; he will understand how to govern men.
Character | Compassion | Conduct | Courage | Man | Men | Nature | Order | Qualities | Will | Wisdom | Govern | Understand |
It is partly to avoid consciousness of greed that we prefer to associate with those who are at least as greedy as we ourselves. Those who consume much less are a reproach.
Consciousness | Greed |
The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.
Dwight Eisenhower, fully Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower
The achievement of brotherhood is the crowning achievement of our society.
Achievement | Brotherhood | Society |
In the alchemy of man’s soul almost all noble attributes - courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on - can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion, even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
Alchemy | Compassion | Courage | Duty | Evil | Faith | Good | Honor | Hope | Love | Loyalty | Loyalty | Man | Ruthlessness | Soul |
Man started out as a "weak thing of the world" and evolved "to confound the things that are mighty." And within the human species, too, the weak often develop aptitudes and devises which enable them not only to survive but to prevail over the strong. Indeed, the formidableness of the human species stems from the survival of its weak. Were it not for the compassion that moves us to care for the sick, the crippled, and the old there would probably would have been neither culture or civilization. The crippled warrior who had to stay behind while the manhood of the tribe went out to war was the storyteller, teacher, and artisan. The old and the sick had a hand in the development of the arts of healing and of cooking. One thinks of the venerable sage, the unhinged medicine man, the epileptic prophet, the blind bard, and the witty hunchback and dwarf.
Care | Civilization | Compassion | Culture | Man | Survival | War | World | Old |
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
Compassion | Soul |
Compassion...abolishes the distance, the in between which always exists in human inter course; and if virtue will always be ready to assert that it is better to suffer wrong than do wrong, compassion will transcend this by stating in complete and even naïve sincerity that it is easier to suffer than to see others suffer.
Better | Compassion | Sincerity | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Wrong |
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 |
Does the world need more medicine and energy and buildings and food? No. There is enough food and medicine, there are enough resources for all. There is starvation and poverty and widespread disease because of human ignorance, prejudice, and fear. Out of greed and hatred we hoard materials; we create wars over imaginary geographic boundaries and act as if one group of people is truly different from another group somewhere else on the planet.
Disease | Energy | Enough | Fear | Greed | Ignorance | Need | People | Poverty | Prejudice | World |
The core prescription for happiness and meaning handed down through all the world’s spiritual teaching is unchanging: Remember the source with gratitude, and love one another. In this way the meaning of life as an interconnected web of love and compassion becomes manifest in even the most seemingly mundane moments.
Compassion | Gratitude | Life | Life | Love | Meaning | World | Happiness |