This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Gottfried Leibniz, fully Gottfried Wilhalm von Leibniz, Baron von Leibnitz
As there is an infinite number of possible universes in the ideas of God, and as only one can exist, there must be sufficient reason for God’s choice, to determine him to one rather than to another. And this reason can only be found in the fitness, or in the degrees of perfection, which these worlds contain.
Amy Lowell, born Amy Lawrence Lowell
Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.
True opinions can prevail only if the facts to which they refer are known; if they are not known, false ideas are just as effective as true ones, if not a little more effective.
Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.
Ideas | Mind | Reflection | Regard | Understanding | Wisdom |
You cannot confine an idea behind prison bars... Ideas cannot be shut in nor shut out.
When a pump is frequently used, the water pours out at the first stroke, because it is high; but, if the pump has not been used for a long time, the water gets low, and when you want it you must pump a long while; and the water comes only after great efforts. It is so with prayer. If we are instant in prayer, every little circumstance awakens the disposition to pray, and desire and words are always ready; but, if we neglect prayer, it is difficult for us to pray, for the water in the well gets low.
Desire | Little | Neglect | Prayer | Time | Wisdom | Words | Circumstance |
The universe is infinite response. Mentally understood, it is all possibilities. Every point of view is possible, and because it ‘exists’ it is right... The universe gives more than we give... Unless one sees the world differently, unless new ideas touch our consciousness we cannot rise to any apprehension of the second system. To all that we know naturally we must add something, and in this volume this addition is taken in terms of adding first the dimension of Time to our own lives and considering what this means for oneself.
Consciousness | Ideas | Means | Right | System | Time | Universe | Wisdom | World |
Friedrich Nietzsche, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.
Desire | Experience | Study | Wisdom |
The concepts of morality too are subject to fashion; and he who cannot incline to the ideas in vogue in his century, is misunderstood and decried by his contemporaries.
All ideas require preparation for their meaning to engage the soul... There is no question whether they are true or not. One buys for oneself. There is no absolute truth. All truth is relative - relative to one’s needs, relative to one’s position in psychological space.
Absolute | Ideas | Meaning | Position | Question | Soul | Space | Truth | Wisdom |
Alfred de Musset, fully Alfred Louis Charles de Musset
Perfection does not exist. To understand it is the triumph of human intelligence; to desire to possess it is the most dangerous kind of madness.
Desire | Wisdom | Understand |