This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
Adversity | Prosperity | Virtue | Virtue |
The Virtue of Prosperity is Temperance; the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude: which in Morals is the more Heroical Virtue.
Adversity | Fortitude | Prosperity | Virtue | Virtue |
To speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroic virtue.
Adversity | Fortitude | Prosperity | Virtue | Virtue |
The growth of bureaucracy is largely self-engendered, in the sense that only a small part of it derides from the real requirements of the function to be served, the greater part being the product of tendencies and pressures arising within the bureaucratic process.
Misfortunes are, in morals, what bitters are in medicine: each is at first disagreeable; but as the bitters act as corrobarants to the stomach, so adversity chastens and ameliorates the disposition.
Sum up at night what thou hast done by day, and in the morning what thou hast to do; dress and undress thy soul; mark the decay or growth of it. If with thy watch that too be down, then wind up both. Since thou shalt be most surely judged, make thine accounts agree.
True friendship is a slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Adversity | Growth | Friendship |
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Adversity | Confidence | Growth | Friendship |
Henry Miller, aka Henry Valentine Miller
All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.
Experience | Growth |
Should we welcome the huge growth of the military budget at the expense of health, education, the needs of children, one fifth of whom grow up in poverty? I suggest that a patriotic American who cares for his or her country might act on behalf of a different vision. Instead of being feared for our military prowess, we should want to be respected for our dedication to human rights.
Children | Dedication | Education | Growth | Health | Poverty | Prowess | Rights | Vision |
John Kenneth Galbraith, aka "Ken"
[The] men of the technostructure are the new and universal priesthood. Their religion is business success; their test of virtue is growth and profit. Their bible is the computer printout; their communion bench is the committee room.
Bible | Business | Computer | Growth | Men | Religion | Success | Virtue | Virtue | Business | Bible |
God sure esteems the growth and completing of one virtuous person, more than the restraint of ten vicious.
To nourish the soul means to become kinder, more compassionate, wiser, and more loving, often through the making of difficult choices that foster growth rather than safety.
John Kenneth Galbraith, aka "Ken"
These men of the technostructure are the new and universal priesthood. Their religion is business success; their test of virtue is growth and profit. Their bible is the computer printout; their communion bench is the committee room.
Bible | Business | Computer | Growth | Men | Religion | Success | Virtue | Virtue | Business | Bible |
Our lives unfold only in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation.
Joseph Chilton Pearce, aka Joe
The worst is yet to come, however. Far more devastating that this pruning is that nature then brings about a corresponding increase of the connecting links of the emotional circuits in this cyngulate gyrus with the lower survival fight-or-flight structures of the amygdala, that neural module linked directly with our ancient defense and survival system in the reptilian brain. In this way, a sharp curtailment of connections with the higher, transcendent frequencies of mind and heart is brought about in order to shift growth toward the lower, protective survival systems.
Defense | Growth | Heart | Mind | Nature | Order | Survival | System |