This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
Economists themselves, like most specialists, normally suffer from a kind of metaphysical blindness, assuming that theirs is a science of absolute and invariable truths, without any presuppositions.
If we were talking to you on your first day here we would say, "Welcome to planet Earth. There is nothing that you cannot be or do or have. And your work here, your lifetime career is...to seek joy."
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
No one is really working for peace unless he is working primarily for the restoration of wisdom.
Erwin Schrödinger, fully Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger
Democritus introduces the intellect having an argument with the senses about what is 'real'.
Hypothesis | Indispensable | Individual | Little | Means | Nature | Nothing | Position | Question | Science | Will |
Ernst Haeckel, full name Ernst Heinrich Phillip August Haeckel
At the lowest stage, the rude--we may say animal--phase of prehistoric primitive man, is the "ape-man," who, in the course of the tertiary period, has only to a limited degree raised himself above his immediate pithecoid ancestors, the anthropoid apes. Next come successive stages of the lowest and simplest kind of culture, such as only the rudest of still existing primitive peoples enable us in some measure to conceive. These "savages" are succeeded by peoples of a low civilization, and from these again, by a long series of intermediate steps, we rise little by little to the more highly civilized nations. To these alone--of the twelve races of mankind only to the Mediterranean and Mongolian--are we indebted for what is usually called "universal history." This last, extending over somewhat less than six thousand years, represents a period of infinitesimal duration in the long millions of years of the organic world's development.
Arrogance | Earth | Illusion | Man | Mother | Organic | Position | Universe |
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
The effort needed to sustain a way of life which seeks to attain the optimal pattern of consumption is likely to be much smaller than the effort needed to sustain a drive for maximum consumption.
Che Guevara, fully Ernesto “Che” Guevara
The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.
Good | Intention | Journey | Means | Space | Theoretical | Think |
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
Can we establish an ideology, or whatever you like to call it, which insists that the educated have taken upon themselves an obligation and have not simply acquired a "passport to privilege"? Â…It is, you might well say, an elementary matter of justice.
Fanaticism | Means | Objectives |
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence.
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
Nature always… knows where and when to stop. Greater even than the mystery of natural growth is the mystery of the natural cessation of growth. There is measure in all natural things – in their size, speed, or violence. As a result, the system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing.
Distinguish | Economics | Means | Method | Money |
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
Even today, we are generally told that gigantic organizations are inescapably necessary; but when we look closely we can notice that as soon as great size has been created there is often a strenuous attempt to attain smallness within bigness.
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
The exclusion of wisdom from economics, science and technology was something which we could perhaps get away with for a little while, as long as we were relatively unsuccessful; but now that we have become very successful, the problem of spiritual and moral truth moves into the central position.
Experience | Life | Life | Means | Think |
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
If aid is given to introduce certain new economic activities, these will be beneficial and viable only if they can be sustained by the already existing educational level of fairly broad groups of people, and they will be truly valuable only if they promote and spread advances in educations, organization, and disciplineÂ…It follow from this that development is not primarily a problem for economists, least of all for economists whose expertise is founded on a crudely materialistic philosophy.
Means | Objectives |
Never mind what is. Imagine it the way you want it to be so that your vibration is a match to your desire. When your vibration is a match to your desire, all things in your experience will gravitate to meet that match every time.
Means | Opposition | Thought | Thought |
Religion in our day has been captured by the tourist mindset. So many have a “bent” for religious entertainment.