This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it in turn will look sourly at you; laugh at it, and with it, and it is a jolly, kind companion.
Man | Reflection | Will | World |
Spiritual experiences are so consistent across cultures, across time, and across faiths that it suggests a common core that is likely a reflection of structures and processes in the human brain.
Reflection | Time |
A good case can be made for the proposition that, although involved or passionate commitment to some cause or ideal is normally healthy and happiness-producing, devout, pious, or fanatic commitment to the same kind of cause or ideal is potentially pernicious and frequently (though not always) does much more harm than good.
Cause | Commitment | Good | Harm | Pious |
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.
Body | Death | Fear | God | Individual | Reflection | God |
Depression, almost invariably, is a reflection of an individual's low estimation of oneself, because the depressed person feels that: "Things are going badly in my life;" and, "I am too weak and inadequate to handle these things or make them better, and therefore I am a pretty bad person."
Better | Depression | Estimation | Individual | Life | Life | Reflection |
This sharpening of skills is the real value of competition. Many have lost sight of the purpose of healthy competition, which helps us to draw forth inner strength and encourages us to transcend our ideas of personal limitation. The real competition, however, is within the person, and not between people... In essence, competition is cooperation.
Competition | Cooperation | Ideas | People | Purpose | Purpose | Strength | Value |
Happiness... must be some form of contemplation. But, being a man, one will also need external prosperity; for our nature is not self-sufficient for the purpose of contemplation, but our body also must be healthy and must have food and other attention. Still, we must not think that the man who is to be happy will need many things or great things... for self-sufficiency and action do not involve excess, and we do noble acts without ruling earth and sea.
Action | Attention | Body | Contemplation | Earth | Excess | Happy | Man | Nature | Need | Prosperity | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Self-sufficiency | Will | Think |
All married couples should learn the art of battle as the should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest - never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.
Our imagination so magnifies this present existence, by the power of continual reflection on it, and so attenuates eternity, by not thinking of it at all, that we reduce an eternity; to nothingness, and expand a mere nothing to an eternity; and this habit is so inveterately rooted in us that all the force of reason cannot induce us to lay it aside.
Eternity | Existence | Force | Habit | Imagination | Nothing | Power | Present | Reason | Reflection | Thinking |
Like the rainbow, peace rests upon the earth, but its arch is lost in heaven. Heaven bathes it in hues of light - it springs up amid tears and clouds - it is a reflection of the eternal sun - it is an assurance of calm - it is the sign of a great covenant between God and man - it is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light.
Earth | Eternal | God | Heaven | Light | Man | Peace | Reflection | Tears | God |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
Study without reflection is a waste of time; reflection without study is dangerous.
Reflection | Study | Time | Waste |
Law is a reflection and a source of prejudice. It both enforces and suggests forms of bias.
Law | Prejudice | Reflection |
Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL
The wider the scope of my reflection on the present and past, the more I am impressed by their mockery of human plans in every transaction.
Mockery | Past | Present | Reflection |