This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
The things that make good headlines attract our attention because they are on the surface of the stream of life and they distract our attention from the slower, impalpable, imponderable movements that work below the surface and penetrate to the depths. But, of course, it is really these deeper, slower movement that, in the end, make history, and it is they that stand out huge in retrospect, when the sensational passing events have dwindled, in perspective, to their true proportions.
In the heart - pure being: “Isness alone is.” Outwardly - flow of events: “A dance, a rhythm.” Between - an evil ghost: “The impostor me,” who seems the very hub and first of things, but, scrutinized, dissolves and is not there. Pure being in the heart - be this, be still; flow of events without - cognize, accept; the evil ghost - be vigilant, expel; this is the path and all the wisdom of it.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
A man’s fate is his own temper; and according to that will be his opinion as to the particular manner in which the course of events is regulated. A consistent man believes in destiny, an capricious man in chance.
Chance | Destiny | Events | Fate | Man | Opinion | Temper | Will | Fate |
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
In politics nothing is contemptible.
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
Nine times out of ten a man’s politics can be predicted from the way in which he makes his living.
Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism.
The very scale of the universe – more than a hundred billion galaxies, each containing more than a hundred billion stars – speaks to us of the inconsequentiality of human events in the cosmic context. We see a universe simultaneously very beautiful and very violent. We see a universe that does not exclude a traditional Western or Eastern god, but that does not require one either.
Chief Seattle, also spelled Seathl
Every part of this country is sacred to my people... Even the rocks that seem to lie dumb as they swelter in the sun of past events connected with the fate of my people, and the very dust under your feet responds more lovingly to our footsteps than to yours, because it is the ashes of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch, for the soil is rich with the life of our kindred.
Events | Fate | Life | Life | Past | People | Sacred | Fate |
When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten; when the belt fits, the belly is forgotten; when the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is comfortable. One begins with what is comfortable and never experiences what is uncomfortable, when one knows the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.
Dan Millman, born Daniel Jay Millman
Pain is a relativity objective, physical phenomenon; suffering is our psychological resistance to what happens. Events may create physical pain, but they do not in themselves create suffering. Resistance creates suffering.
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Little | Magnanimity | Politics | Wisdom |
Ask not that events should happen as you will, but let your will be that events should happen as they do, and you shall have peace.
Frédéric Bastiat, fully Claude Frédéric Bastiat
A science of economics must be developed before a science of politics can be logically formulated. Essentially, economics is the science of determining whether the interests of human beings are harmonious or antagonistic. This must be known before a science of politics can be formulated to determine the proper functions of government.
Economics | Government | Politics | Science |
The events in our lives happen in a sequence of time, but in their significance to ourselves, they find their own order... the continuous thread of revelation.
Events | Order | Revelation | Time |