This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
People who boast about their IQ are losers.
Challenge | Search | Understanding | Will |
There are something like ten million million million million million million million million million million million million million million (1 with eighty zeroes after it) particles in the region of the universe that we can observe. Where did they all come from? The answer is that, in quantum theory, particles can be created out of energy in the form of particle/antiparticle pairs. But that just raises the question of where the energy came from. The answer is that the total energy of the universe is exactly zero. The matter in the universe is made out of positive energy. However, the matter is all attracting itself by gravity. Two pieces of matter that are close to each other have less energy than the same two pieces a long way apart, because you have to expend energy to separate them against the gravitational force that is pulling them together. Thus, in a sense, the gravitational field has negative energy. In the case of a universe that is approximately uniform in space, one can show that this negative gravitational energy exactly cancels the positive energy represented by the matter. So the total energy of the universe is zero.
You cannot understand the glories of the universe without believing there is some Supreme Power behind it.
There might finally emerge a human animal of rare sensitivity whose curiosity could sense the existence of environments no longer physical, where the adaption required of all the species was a subtle change of consciousness.
Adventure | Church | Conquest | Man | Politics | Public | Reality | Search | Will | World | Think |
You can practice deep listening in order to relieve the suffering in us, and in the other person. That kind of listening is described as compassionate listening. You listen only for the purpose of relieving suffering in the other person.
Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.
Duty | Freedom | Important | Little | Power | Principles | Revolution | Right | Search | Think |
The deep secrecy of my own being is often hidden from me by my own estimate of what I am. My idea of what I am is falsified by my admiration for what I do. And my illusions about myself are bred by contagion from the illusions of other men. We all seek to imitate one another’s imagined greatness.
Abstract | Acceptance | Change | Despair | Existence | God | Life | Life | Love | Nothing | Openness | Peace | Poverty | Search | Self | God |
Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.
William Henley, fully William Ernest Henley
Margaritae Sorori - A late lark twitters from the quiet skies: And from the west, Where the sun, his day's work ended, Lingers as in content, There falls on the old, gray city An influence luminous and serene, A shining peace. The smoke ascends In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires Shine and are changed. In the valley Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun, Closing his benediction, Sinks, and the darkening air Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night-- Night with her train of stars And her great gift of sleep. So be my passing! My task accomplish'd and the long day done, My wages taken, and in my heart Some late lark singing, Let me be gather'd to the quiet west, The sundown splendid and serene, Death.
Chance | Heart | Man | Praise | Pride | Search | Sound | Worth | Loss |
A Farmhouse on the Wei River - In the slant of the sun on the country-side, Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane; And a rugged old man in a thatch door Leans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herdboy. There are whirring pheasants, full wheat-ears, Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves. And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders, Hail one another familiarly. ...No wonder I long for the simple life And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again.
Change | Doubt | Earth | God | Heart | Journey | Land | Love | Magic | Man | Nothing | People | Plan | Quiet | Reason | Search | Thinking | Time | World | God | Old | Think |
My Gift - What shall I give to you , my friend, To express my love and goodwill: Shall it not be a part of myself? Then let it be the very best part, which is the secret of all my gladness. The rarest treasure I possess is the conviction that life is good: that it had abundant compensation for every trouble that may come; that it has possibilities beyond all you have ever dreamed; that among even the very least are capacities beyond the greatest yet expressed within our ken; that great surges of power and joy are eager to course through us and reveal a life transcendent. Tears of joy often fill my eyes, a wonderful feeling at my throat, thrills that almost pain my bosom, and my heart sings to the stars. If I could make you feel that way and hold it through all the years, that would be my gift to you. May your year unfold in surprising asnd lovely ways.
I heard an Angel singing When the day was springing: ‘Mercy, Pity, Peace Is the world’s release.’ Thus he sang all day Over the new-mown hay, Till the sun went down, And haycocks lookèd brown. I heard a Devil curse Over the heath and the furze: ‘Mercy could be no more If there was nobody poor, ‘And Pity no more could be, If all were as happy as we.’ At his curse the sun went down, And the heavens gave a frown. [Down pour’d the heavy rain Over the new reap’d grain; And Misery’s increase Is Mercy, Pity, Peace.]
Abstract | Cruelty | Earth | Fear | Happy | Humility | Mercy | Mystery | Nature | Search | Cruelty |
The grave is Heaven's golden gate, and rich and poor around it wait; O Shepherdess of England's fold, behold this gate of pearl and gold!
Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather
Yes, and because we grow old we become more and more the stuff our forbears put into us. I can feel his savagery strengthen in me. We think we are so individual and so misunderstood when we are young; but the nature our strain of blood carries is inside there, waiting, like our skeleton.