This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
How simple it is to make a difference in the lives of others.
The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work.
Work |
Our freedom depends on our willingness to see Perfection. The imperfection that we have been taught to see has led only to suffering... Perfection is not a standard to be achieved, but a truth to be acknowledged. It is not the difference between us and God, but the hallmark of our unity with Him. And the honoring of Perfection is not a sin of vanity, but the humble acceptance of our identity as offspring of the Eternal.
Acceptance | Eternal | Freedom | God | Imperfection | Perfection | Sin | Suffering | Truth | Unity |
Alice Walker, fully Alice Malsenior Walker
It's essential that we understand that taking care of the planet will be done as we take care of ourselves. You know that you can't really make much of a difference in things until you change yourself.
Care | Change | Will | Understand |
That difference between ancients and moderns is that the ancients asked what have we experienced, and moderns asked what can we experience.
A young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, but its discussions start from these and are about these; and further, since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable, because the end aimed at is not knowledge but action. And it makes no difference whether he is young in years or youthful in character; the defect does not depend on time, but on his living, and pursuing each successive object, as passion directs. For to such persons, as to the incontinent, knowledge brings no profit; but to those who desire and act in accordance with a rational principle knowledge about such matters will be of great benefit.
Action | Character | Desire | Knowledge | Life | Life | Man | Object | Passion | Science | Study | Time | Will |
There is wide difference between the original thinker and the merely learned man.
Man |
It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths as to root out old errors, for there is this paradox in men: they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favor of that which is old... A truth that is merely acquired from others only clings to us as a limb added to the body, or as a false tooth, or a wax nose. A truth we have acquired by our own mental exertions, is like our natural limbs, which really belong to us. This is exactly the difference between an original thinker and the mere learned man.
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
We find that the essence of human society consists in a common self, a life and will, which belong to and are exercised by the society as such, or by the individuals in society as such; it makes no difference which expression we choose. The reality of this common self, in the action of the political whole, receives the name of the ‘general will’.
Action | Life | Life | Reality | Self | Society | Will | Society |
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
Since no way can be found for deciding a difference in values, the conclusion is forced upon us that the difference is one of tastes, not one as to any objective truth.
Truth |
In proportion as our own mind is enlarged we discover a greater number of men of originality. Commonplace people see no difference between one man and another.
Man | Men | Mind | Originality | People |
The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in men. Ordinary people see no difference between men.
Man | Men | Originality | People |
The great intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
Men | Originality | Intellect |
It is certain that the soul is either mortal or immortal. The decision of this question must make a total difference in the principles of morals. Yet philosophers have arranged their moral system entirely independent of this. What an extraordinary blindness!