This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
We say: our aim is to achieve a socialist system of society, which, by eliminating the division of mankind into classes, by eliminating all exploitation of man by man and nation by nation, will inevitably eliminate the very possibility of war.
Need | Revolution | Terror |
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
America has become one of the foremost countries in regard to the depth of the abyss which lies between the handful of arrogant multimillionaires who wallow in filth and luxury, and the millions of working people who constantly live on the verge of pauperism.
Oppression | Revolution | Society | Time | Society | Old |
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
A revolutionary class cannot but wish for the defeat of its government in a reactionary war.
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
A full 'definition of an object must include the whole of human experience, both as a criterion of truth and a practical indicator of its connection with human wants.
Bourgeoisie | Regard | Revolution | Struggle | Will |
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Notwithstanding all the differences in the aims and tasks of the Russian revolution, compared with the French revolution of 1871, the Russian proletariat had to resort to the same method of struggle as that first used by the Paris Commune — civil war. Mindful of the lessons of the Commune, it knew that the proletariat should not ignore peaceful methods of struggle — they serve its ordinary, day-to-day interests, they are necessary in periods of preparation for revolution — but it must never forget that in certain conditions the class struggle assumes the form of armed conflict and civil war; there are times when the interests of the proletariat call for ruthless extermination of its enemies in open armed clashes.
Energy | Nothing | Proletariat | Revolution | Will | World |
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
The proletarian state must effect the transition to collective farming with extreme caution and only very gradually, by the force of example, without any coercion of the middle peasant.
Majority | Revolution | Sympathy |
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
When we are victorious on a world scale I think we shall use gold for the purpose of building public lavatories in the streets of some of the largest cities of the world.
Change | Difficulty | Position | Revolution | Time | Old |
Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL
All kinds are good except the kind that bores you.
Life | Life | Order | Revolution |
The observation of the breathing rhythm is suggested as a support to those who cannot arrive at the spontaneous stillness of total mind without some support. But to depend upon the support for a long period is undesirable and unwarranted. One has to discover for oneself whether one is learning self-reliance through the support or not. Simple observation of the breathing rhythm culminates into silence or total awareness within a few weeks. Secondly the hour of silence should enable one to live in awareness throughout the day.
Discovery | Existence | Freedom | Journey | Meaning | Religion | Revolution | Truth | Discovery |
There have been superficial blendings, as spiritual groups take up social service work and social activists join religious organizations, but a real integration of social action and spirituality at a deep, innovative level has not yet happened to any significant degree. The history of human development has been fragmentary, and the majority of people have been content with the fragmentation. It has the sanction of society. Each fragment of society has its own set of values. Among many social activists, anger, hatred, violence, bitterness, and cynicism are accepted norms, even though the effectiveness of these motivations for peaceful living has been seriously put in doubt. And indifference to the needs of the poor has had shocking acceptance among generations of spiritual people who considered higher states of consciousness much more significant than the misery of the starving millions.
The cleverness of the human mind has led us to the complex, horrifying, and all-encompassing crisis that we now face. The familiar solutions, based on a limited view of what a human being is, continue to fail, to be pathetically inadequate. Yet we pour vast resources into these tired solutions and feel that if we achieve a grand enough scale, the old solutions will meet the new challenges. Do we have the courage to see failures as failures and leave them to the past? Do we have the vitality to go beyond narrow, one-sided views of human life and to open ourselves to totality and wholeness? The call of the hour is to move beyond the fragmentary, to awaken to total revolution.
Challenge | Life | Life | Little | Revolution | Safe | Ugly | Wholeness |
The essence of religion is the personal discovery of the meaning of life, the meaning of truth. Religion is related to the unconditional, total freedom that truth confers on us. It is a revolution of the whole way of living. Religion moves us from the superficial layers of existence and encourages us to go deeper to the roots of life. It is an inward journey to the depths of our being.
Anarchy | Behavior | Energy | Justify | Life | Life | Love | Revolution | Society | Truth | Ugly | Society |
The status critique does not actually say luxury is meaningless. To the contrary, the critics' usual argument is that such goods are only about meaning; they are 'objects as rich in meaning as they are low in utility.' The status critique sees only 2 possible sources of value: function and meaning; and it reduces meaning to a single idea: 'I'm better than you.' It denies the existence or importance of aesthetic pleasure and the many meanings and associations that can flow from that pleasure.
Individual | Revolution | Think |
Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard
Fighting inner darkness in the wrong way is the same as submitting to it. Truth will show you how to truly fight for light.
Ends | Insecurity | Journey | People | Security | Following |
François-René de Chateaubriand, fully François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand
Religion assures us that our afflictions shall have an end; she comforts us, she dries our tears, she promises us another life. On the contrary, in the abominable worship of atheism, human woes are the incense, death is the priest, a coffin the altar, and annihilation the Deity.
Genius | Happy | Revolution | Taste |
François-René de Chateaubriand, fully François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand
One can never be the judge of another's grief. That which is a sorrow to one, to another is joy. Let us not dispute with any one concerning the reality of his sufferings; it is with sorrows as with countries - each man has his own.
Change | Dawn | Doubt | Light | Looks | Men | Nations | Revolution | Thinking | Tomorrow | Will | World | Old |
King of the peak and glacier, King of the cold, white scalps, He lifts his head at that close tread, The eagle of the Alps.
Justice | Lord | Revolution | World |
Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Children | Revolution |
Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our Being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed, whether it be ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization, will be unavoidable. If we are no longer threatened by world war or by the danger that the absurd mountains of accumulated nuclear weapons might blow up the world, this does not mean that we have definitively won. We are in fact far from definite victory.
Consciousness | Global | Revolution | Society | Will | Society |