This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Winwood Reade, fully William Winwood Reade
All men cannot be poets or philanthropists; but all men can join in that gigantic and god-like work the progress of creation. Whoever improves their own nature improves the universe of which they are a part.
To indoctrinate the child with the prevailing world-view of the society and class in which he has been born, to enforce conformity in later life by the thunders of the priest and by the sword of the magistrate has been “the wisdom of our ancestor” at every stage in their progress from savagery to civilization.
Civilization | Conformity | Life | Life | Progress | Society | Wisdom | World | Society | Child |
The meaning and purpose of the world remain to a large extent inexplicable. But one thing is clear: the purpose of all events is spiritual. The purpose of existence is that we human beings, all nations and the whole of humanity, should constantly progress toward perfection. If we do this, our finite spirit will be in harmony with the infinite.
Events | Existence | Harmony | Humanity | Meaning | Nations | Perfection | Progress | Purpose | Purpose | Spirit | Will | World |
Tom Stoppard, fully Sir Tom Stoppard, born Tomáš Straüssler
We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
Memory | Nothing | Presumption | Progress |
Susan Cullen-Ward, born Susan Barbara Zogu, formerly Williams, née Susan Cullen-Ward
If a man has lived in a tradition which tells him that nothing can be done about his human condition, to believe that progress is possible may be the greatest revolution of all.
Man | Nothing | Progress | Revolution | Tradition |
The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.
Appearance | World |
Man is, indeed, a being apart, since he is not influenced by the great laws which irresistibly modify all other organic beings… Man has not only escaped natural selection himself, but he is actually able to take away some of that power from nature which before his appearance she universally exercised.
Appearance | Man | Nature | Organic | Power |
Imagine your life is a painting in progress and you are the artist. Each new moment, a blank space on your canvas. The ones painted are your past. Each new moment, another brush stroke, created from your hand, moved by spirit, mind, heart and soul. Strive to make your painting a "masterpiece," and alas - when it is finished, Life will proclaim, "Ahh yes ... well done!"
Heart | Life | Life | Mind | Past | Progress | Soul | Space | Spirit | Will |
Anything that interferes with individual progress ultimately will retard group progress.
Individual | Progress | Will |
Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
For everything there is a time, so there comes a time for the unfolding of the soul - but the period of that development depends upon the speed of the progress man makes through life.
Throughout human history, progress has come through the men and women who dared to challenge the precepts and dogmas that curtailed freedoms. Freethinking (which includes skepticism, rationalism, unbelief, atheism, agnosticism, humanism and so forth) has made great and lasting contributions to human freedom, human rights, and human equality.
Atheism | Challenge | Equality | Freedom | History | Men | Progress | Rights | Skepticism | Unbelief |