This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Policies are many, principles are few. Policies will change, principles never do.
Change | Principles | Will |
J.W. Marriott, Jr., fully John Willard "Bill" Marriott, Jr.
Companies that don’t risk anything will inevitably find themselves falling behind those that do. You can lead change or it can lead you.
I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
Government consists mainly in so keeping your subjects that they shall be neither able nor disposed to injure you; and this is done by depriving them of all means of injuring you, or by bestowing such benefits upon them that it would not be reasonable for them to desire any change of fortune.
Change | Desire | Fortune | Government | Means |
Randy Pausch, fully Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch
We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
Storytelling can be a powerful agent of personal transformation. The right stories can open our hearts and change who we are.
Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman
The accumulated research pertaining to the accuracy of our memories and beliefs can be summarized as follows: All memories and beliefs are subject to change and distortion. Conscious beliefs and memory recall are highly dependent on language, emotion, and social interaction; as these variables change, so do our memories and beliefs. Children’s memories and beliefs distinguish poorly between fantasies and facts. The older a memory, the more difficult it is to ascertain accuracy.
Accuracy | Change | Children | Distinguish | Language | Memory | Research |
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Business | Conduct | Conscience | Death | Distress | Esteem | Heart | Little | Love | Man | Principles | Reflection | Smile | Strength | Will | Business |
Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.
Change | Forgiveness | Future | Past |
I question whether God himself would wish me to hide behind the principles of non-violence while innocent people were being slaughtered.
God | People | Principles | Question | God |
In God’s Kingdom the corrupting principles of domination and subjugation will be overcome. People will no longer model social or religious relationships; or even relationships to God after the sort of power that reduces others to servility. Rather they will discover a new kind of power, a power exercised through service, which empowers the disinherited and brings all to a new relationship of mutual enhancement.
God | Model | People | Power | Principles | Relationship | Service | Will | God |
Patricia Goldman-Rakic, born Patricia Shoer
The ultimate function of the neurons in the prefrontal cortex is to excite or inhibit activity in other parts of the brain.” In prohibition and shame we excite the most destructive systems and inhibit the creative ones.
Shame |
The existentialist insight, in part, is that meaning is something we give to life. We do not find meaning so much as throw ourselves at it. The Zen insight, in part, is that worrying about meaning may itself make life less meaningful than it might have been. Part of the virtue of the Zen attitude lies in learning to not need to be busy: learning there is joy and meaning and peace in simply being mindful, not needing to change or be changed. Let the moment mean what it will.
Change | Insight | Joy | Learning | Life | Life | Meaning | Need | Peace | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Zen |
Red Skelton, fully Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton
If we don’t change the direction in which we are going, we will end up where we are headed.
Words are things. Thoughts are things. Where your thoughts are, you are. When we learn to discipline and control our thoughts and feelings, and use only the positive, constructive words, sent forth with divine love, our body and mind respond to that righteousness – right-use-ness. The right use and selection of words is of vital importance but equally important is the feeling behind those words, for feeling is the motivating power that makes the words live.
Body | Control | Discipline | Feelings | Important | Love | Mind | Power | Right | Righteousness | Words | Learn |
The President must have not only the courage of his convictions but also the courage to change his convictions.
Change | Convictions | Courage |