This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Some people speak as if hypocrites were confined to religion; but they are everywhere; people pretending to wealth when they have not a sixpence, assuming knowledge of which they are ignorant; shamming a culture they are far removed from adopting opinions they don't hold.
The steady pressure to consume, absorb, participate, receive, by eye, ear, mouth and mail involves a cruelty to intestines, blood pressure, and psyche unparalleled in history. We are being killed with kindness. We are being stifled with culture and material joys.
Cruelty | Culture | History | Kindness | Receive | Wisdom | Cruelty |
J. B. S. Haldane, fully John Burdon Sanderson Haldane
A single mind can acquire a fair knowledge of the whole field of science, and find plenty of time to spare for ordinary human affairs. Not many people take the trouble to do so. But without a knowledge of science one cannot understand current events. That is why our modern our modern literature and art are mostly so unreal.
Art | Events | Knowledge | Literature | Mind | People | Plenty | Science | Time | Wisdom | Trouble | Art | Understand |
What thing was the most swiftest in the world? Mans minde, because in a moment of time it discurres all things.
Ulysses S. Grant, fully Ulysses Simpson Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant
There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword.
Central to the notion of masculinity is its rejection of everything that is defined by a culture as feminine and its legitimated control of whatever counts as the feminine... Gender is an asymmetrical category of human thought, social organization, and individual identity and behavior.
Behavior | Control | Culture | Individual | Organization | Thought | Wisdom |
S. I. Hayakawa, fully Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa
If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture than you are a victim of it.
Once upon a time we were just plain people. But that was before we began having relationships with mechanical systems. Get involved with a machine and sooner or later you are reduced to a factor.
Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, pen name Amanda Cross
Ideas move fast when their time comes.
God makes the Aeon, the Aeon makes the Kosmos, the Kosmos makes Time, and Time makes Coming-to-be. The essence of God is the Good, the essence of the Aeon is sameness, the essence of the Kosmos is order, the essence of Time is change, and the essence of Coming-to-be is life. The workings of God are mind and soul, the workings of the Aeon are immortality and duration, the workings of the Aeon are immortality and duration, the workings of the kosmos are re-instatement in identity and re-instatement by substitution, the workings of Time are increase and decrease, and the workings of Coming-to-be are quality and quantity. The aeon then is in God, the Kosmos is in the Aeon, Time is in the Kosmos, and Coming-to-be takes place in Time.
Change | God | Good | Immortality | Life | Life | Mind | Order | Soul | Time | Wisdom | God |
The patriotism of antiquity becomes in modern societies a caricature. In antiquity, it developed naturally from the whole condition of a people, its youth, its situation, its culture - with us it is an awkward imitation. Our life demands, not separation from other nations, but constant intercourse; our city life is not that of the ancient city-state.
Antiquity | Culture | Imitation | Life | Life | Nations | Patriotism | People | Wisdom | Youth |
A current time-slice theory makes the justificational status of a belief wholly a function of what is true of the cognizer at the time of belief. An historical theory makes the justificational status of a belief depend on its prior history. Since my historical theory emphasizes the reliability of the belief-generating processes, it may be called ‘historical reliabilism.’
Belief | History | Reliability | Time | Wisdom |