This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Max Weber, formally Maximilian Carl Emil Weber
Since Judaism made Christianity possible and gave it the character of a religion essentially free from magic, it rendered an important service from the point of view of economic history. For the dominance of magic outside the sphere in which Christianity has prevailed in one of the most serious obstructions to the rationalization of economic life. Magic involves a stereotyping of technology and economic relations. When attempts were made in China to inaugurate the building of railroads and factories a conflict with geomancy ensued ... Similar is the relation to capitalism of the castes in India. Every new technical process which an Indian employs signifies for him first of all that he leaves his caste and falls into another, necessarily lower ... An additional fact is that every caste makes every other caste impure. In consequence, workmen who dare not accept a vessel filled with water from each other's hands, cannot be employed together in the same factory room. Obviously, capitalism could not develop in an economic group thus bound hand and foot by magical means.
Capitalism | Character | Important | Magic | Religion | Service | Technology |
Menander, aka Menander of Athens NULL
I count it happiness, Ere we go quickly thither whence we came, To gaze ungrieving on these majesties, The world-wide sun, the stars, water and clouds, and fire. Live, Parmeno, a hundred years Or a few months, these you will always see and never, never, any greater things. Think of this life-time as a festival Or visit to a strange city, full of noise, Buying and selling, thieving, dicing stalls And joy parks. If you leave it early, friend, Why, think you have gone to find a better inn: You have paid your fare and leave no enemies.
Mencius, born Meng Ke or Ko NULL
Human nature is good, just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good, just as there is no water that does not flow downward..
If one looks into the genealogies of many 'old families,' one discovers episodes of slave trafficking, bootlegging, gun running, opium trading, falsified land claims, violent acquisition of water and mineral rights, the extermination of indigenous peoples, sales of shoddy and unsafe goods, public funds used for private speculations, crooked deals in government bonds and vouchers, and payoffs for political favors. One finds fortunes built on slave labor, indentured labor, prison labor, immigrant labor, female labor, child labor, and scab labor -- backed by the lethal force of gun thugs and militia. 'Old money' is often little more than dirty money laundered by several generations of possession.
Dirty | Force | Government | Labor | Land | Little | Looks | Money | Prison | Public | Government | Child |
Michael Jackson, fully Michael Joseph Jackson, aka MJ or King of Pop
In the end, the most important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love and work hard. Work like there's no tomorrow. Train. Strive. Really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it's books or a floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it's yours. That's what I've always tried to remember.
Miguel de Cervantes, fully Miguel de Cervantes Saaversa
All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories — and bless the man who invented sleep, a cloak over all human thought, food that drives away hunger, water that banishes thirst, fire that heats up cold, chill that moderates passion, and, finally, universal currency with which all things can be bought, weight and balance that brings the shepherd and the king, the fool and the wise, to the same level. There’s only one bad thing about sleep, as far as I’ve ever heard, and that is that it resembles death, since there’s very little difference between a sleeping man and a corpse.
In the Western imagination, reason has long belonged to terra firma. Island or continent, it repels water with a solid stubbornness: it only concedes its sand. As for unreason, it has been aquatic from the depths of time and until fairly recently. And more precisely oceanic: infinite space, uncertain ... Madness is the flowing liquid exterior of rocky reason.
Milarepa, fully Jetsun Milarepa NULL
All the water and drink you've consumed from beginningless time until now has failed to satisfy your thirst or bring you contentment. Drink therefore of this stream Of enlightened mind, Fortunate Ones.
Time |
The bashful learneth not, the impatient teacheth not. Why is Torah compared to water? To teach thee that as water floweth away from the lofty and gathereth only in the lowly places, so with wisdom among men.
Your smiling in your brother's face is charity an exhortation of your fellow man to virtuous deeds is equal to almsgiving, your putting a wanderer in the right road is charity, your assisting the blind is charity your removing stones and thorns and other obstructions from the road is charity your giving water to the thirsty is charity.
Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Everything even mountains, rivers, plants and trees should be your teacher.
Contemplate the workings of this world, listen to the words of the wise, take all that is good as your own. With this as your base, open your own door to truth. Do not overlook the truth that is right before you. Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Also learn from holy books and wise people. Everything-even mountains, rivers, plants, and trees-should be your teacher.
Books | Good | Right | Study | Truth | Wise | Words | Learn |
Mohamed Iqbal or Sir Muhammad Iqbal, aka Allama Iqbal
Destiny is the prison and chain of the ignorant. Understand that destiny like the water of the Nile: Water before the faithful, blood before the unbeliever.
Destiny | Prison | Understand |
We could not guard every water pipeline from being blown up and every tree from being uprooted. We could not prevent every murder of a worker in an orchard or a family in their beds. But it was in our power to set high price for our blood, a price too high for the Arab community, the Arab army, or the Arab governments to think it worth paying. . . It was in our power to cause the Arab governments to renounce 'the policy of strength' toward Israel by turning it into a demonstration of weakness.
Cause | Family | Murder | Policy | Power | Price | Worth | Murder | Think |
Every good act is charity. Your smiling in your brother's face, is charity; an exhortation of your fellow-man to virtuous deeds, is equal to alms-giving; your putting a wanderer in the right road, is charity; your removing stones, and thorns, and other obstructions from the road, is charity; your giving water to the thirsty, is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter, is the good he does in this world to his fellow-man. When he dies, people will say, "What property has he left behind him?" but the angels will ask, "What good deeds has he sent before him."
Angels | Deeds | Giving | Good | People | Property | Right | Wealth | Will | World | Deeds |
Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
What has to die will die, and what has to remain will remain. Supposing you dig a well and the water dries up. Just because the well went dry, you cannot say that there is no water there. You cannot say that the spring is dead, for if you dig down one more foot, water will again spring up. If people will only dig a little deeper, they will find the water there. Of course, they can say, “There is no water in the well any more,” and go away. But those who have real thirst will dig a little deeper, and they will find water there. What is will always be. That which dies is dead and gone, but that which is will always be.
Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
My children, Allah's greetings of peace and supplications, His salams and salawats, resonate there in that water of divine knowledge. There you will find His representatives, His prophets, His olis, qutbs, auliya' and all those who know Him. Every second, every minute, they are praying and resonating with that beauty of Allah. Whoever falls into this water of divine knowledge will keep changing, until the taste of Allah is within him and he becomes the beauty of Allah.
Nāgārjuna, fully Acharya Nāgārjuna NULL
True knowledge is a virtue of the talented, But harmful to those without discernment. Spring water free of impurity, entering the ocean, becomes undrinkable.
Nāgārjuna, fully Acharya Nāgārjuna NULL
Although a cloth be washed a hundred times, how can it be rendered clean and pure if it be washed in water which is dirty?