This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Paul Gaugin, fully Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin
Silence! I am learning to know the silence of a Tahitian night.
Marriage, families, all relationships are more a process of learning the dance rather than finding the right dancer.
Man struggles to survive, not to succumb… Learning something means coming into contact with a world of which you know nothing. In order to learn, you must be humble… Many of us are returning from a long journey during which we were forced to search for things that were of no interest to us. Now we realize that they were false. But this return cannot be made without pain, because we have been away for a long time and feel that we are strangers in our own land. It will take some time to find the friends who also left, and the places where our roots and treasures lie. But this will happen… Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place… Miracles only happen if you believe in miracles.
Journey | Learning | Means | Miracles | Order | People | Search | Time | Will | World | Friends |
Pema Chödrön, born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown
Learning how to be kind to ourselves, learning how to respect ourselves, is important. The reason it's important is that, fundamentally, when we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn't just ourselves that we're discovering. We're discovering the universe.
The young all have the same dream: to save the world. Some quickly forget this dream, convinced that there are more important things to do, like having a family, earning money, traveling, and learning a foreign language. Others, though, decide that it really is possible to make a difference in society and to shape the world we will hand on to future generations… There is a work of art each of us was destined to create. That is the central point of our life, and -no matter how we try to deceive ourselves -we know how important it is to our happiness. Usually, that work of art is covered by years of fears, guilt and indecision. But, if we decide to remove those things that do not belong, if we have no doubt as to our capability, we are capable of going forward with the mission that is our destiny. That is the only way to live with honor.
Art | Doubt | Future | Guilt | Important | Learning | Mission | Society | Will | Work | World | Society | Art |
A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires… A teacher isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows… A disciple... can never imitate his guide's steps. You have your own way of living your life, of dealing with problems, and of winning. Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.
Peter F. Drucker, fully Peter Ferdinand Drucker
We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.
Peter F. Drucker, fully Peter Ferdinand Drucker
Universities won't survive. The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast.
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.
Capacity | Heart | Hunger | Learning | Means | Relationship | World |
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes.
Petrarch, anglicized from Italian name Francesco Petrarca NULL
Books have led some to learning and others to madness, when they swallow more than they can digest.
Learning |
Advocates of psychiatric drugs often claim that the medications improve learning and the ability to benefit from psychotherapy, but the contrary is true. There are no drugs that improve mental function, self-understanding, or human relations. Any drug that affects mental processes does so by impairing them.
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it... This then, is the basic meaning of a learning organization -an organization that is continuously expanding its capacity to create its future. Survival learning or what is more often called adaptive learning is important - indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization, adaptive learning must be joined by generative learning, learning that enhances our capacity to create.
Capacity | Important | Learning | Meaning | Organization | Relationship | Survival | World |
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
It is not the absence of defensiveness that characterizes learning teams but the way defensiveness is faced.
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
New insights fail to get put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works... images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting. That is why the discipline of managing mental models -- surfacing, testing, and improving our internal pictures of how the world works -- promises to be a major breakthrough for learning organizations.
Discipline | Learning | Practice | Thinking | World |
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
People with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them – in effect; they approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art. They do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning. Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively. As such, it is an essential cornerstone of the learning organization – the learning organization’s spiritual foundation.
Discipline | Learning | Life | Life | Organization | Reality | Work |
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life.
Capacity | Learning | Relationship | World |
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
The Army’s After Action Review (AAR) is arguably one of the most successful organizational learning methods yet devised.
Peter F. Drucker, fully Peter Ferdinand Drucker
Educators can no longer assume that somebody else will do the educational job for them. With everybody else going to school till adulthood, school has become the place for learning whatever one needs in order to be both human and effective.