This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
As for myself, I can only exhort you to look on Friendship as the most valuable of all human possessions, no other being equally suited to the moral nature of man, or so applicable to every state and circumstance, whether of prosperity or adversity, in which he can possibly be placed. But at the same time I lay it down as a fundamental axiom that "true Friendship can only subsist between those who are animated by the strictest principles of honour and virtue." When I say this, I would not be thought to adopt the sentiments of those speculative moralists who pretend that no man can justly be deemed virtuous who is not arrived at that state of absolute perfection which constitutes, according to their ideas, the character of genuine wisdom. This opinion may appear true, perhaps, in theory, but is altogether inapplicable to any useful purpose of society, as it supposes a degree of virtue to which no mortal was ever capable of rising.
Absolute | Character | Man | Mortal | Nature | Opinion | Perfection | Principles | Prosperity | Purpose | Purpose | Thought | Time | Virtue | Virtue | Friendship | Thought |
Marcel Proust, fully Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust
Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.
Purpose | Purpose | Unhappiness |
Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.
You can throw yourselves away. You can become of no use in the universe except for a warning. You can lose your souls. Oh, what a loss is that! The perversion and degradation of every high and immortal power for an eternity! And shall this be true of any one of you? Will you be lost when One has come from heaven, traveling in the greatness of His strength, and with garments dyed in blood, on purpose to guide you home - home to a Father’s house - to an eternal home?
Eternal | Greatness | Power | Purpose | Purpose | Universe | Will | Loss |
I was taught that the world had a lot of problems; that I could struggle and change them; that intellectual and material gifts brought the privilege and responsibility of sharing with others less fortunate; and that service is the rent each of us pays for living -- the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time or after you have reached your personal goals
Change | Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | Responsibility | Service | Struggle | Time | World | Privilege |
Just as the word no longer arises by a special act of creation, but exists all the time as a continual noise, so human actions no longer happen as a result of special decision, but as part of a continuous process. The process is now the primary, man is a mere appendage of the process. This "labour process" is so secure that is does not seem to depend on man at all: it seems to be a kind of natural phenomenon, almost independent of man altogether. And this never-ending process that is somehow outside man’s control, corresponds absolutely to the never-ending process of noise. This labour process penetrates everything so much that it seems to continue inaudibly even in the intervals of work. / The point is not the purpose of the labour process, but the fact that it never stops. Just as the word is ground down in the general noise, so the creative energy of man is stamped out in this labour process. There is no human purpose left in this never-ending labour process. A new kind of being has arisen here, a pure being without purpose, which is taken for granted only because of its apparent continuity. It is taken so much for granted that it is not discussed at all. And this is the great power of the labour process: that it has established itself outside the sphere of discussion.
The technologist was the final guise of the white missionary, industrialization the last gospel of a dying race and living standards a substitute for a purpose in living.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe
When you waste a moment, you have killed it in a sense, squandering an irreplaceable opportunity. But when you use the moment properly, filling it with purpose and productivity, it lives on forever.
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
As long as the human mind does not directly experience Ultimate Reality as it is, it is baffled in every attempt to explain the origin and the purpose of creation.
Experience | Mind | Purpose | Purpose | Reality |
Meryl Streep, born Mary Louise Streep
While I am overwhelmingly proud of work that I, believe me, did not do on my own, I can assure you that awards have very little bearing on my own personal happiness, my own sense of well-being and purpose in the world.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe
The divine purpose of the present information revolution, for instance, which gives an individual unprecedented power and opportunity, is to allow us to share knowledge—spiritual knowledge—with each other, empowering and unifying individuals everywere. We need to use today’s interactive technology not just for business or leisure but to interlink as people – to create a welcome environment for the interaction of our souls, our hearts, our visions.
Business | Individual | Leisure | Need | People | Power | Present | Purpose | Purpose | Technology | Business |
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Our sages point to Messiah and the Messianic era as the ultimate purpose for the creation of the world. God created the world in order that he would have a dwelling place among men. And this would be realized in the messianic era because the world was created solely for the Messiah.
The world of science lives fairly comfortably with paradox. We know that light is a wave, and also that light is a particle. The discoveries made in the infinitely small world of particle physics indicate randomness and chance, and I do not find it any more difficult to live with the paradox of a universe of randomness and chance and a universe of pattern and purpose than I do with light as a wave and light as a particle. Living with contradiction is nothing new to the human being.
Chance | Contradiction | Light | Nothing | Paradox | Purpose | Purpose | Science | Universe | World |