This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
For those that like '-ism' sorts of names, the aptest name for my approach to understanding how things work is probably 'hierarchical reductionism'. If you read trendy intellectual magazines, you may have noticed that 'reductionism' is one of those things, like sin, that is only mentioned by people who are against it. To call oneself a reductionist will sound, in some circles, a bit like admitting to eating babies. But, just as nobody actually eats babies, so nobody is really a reductionist in any sense worth being against.
I can think of no moral objection to eating human road kills except for the ones that you mentioned like 'what would the relatives think about it?' and 'would the person themselves have wanted it to happen?', but I do worry a bit about slippery slopes; possibly a little bit more than you do.
Marriage is the miracle that transforms a kiss from a pleasure into a duty.
Looks |
Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.
Body |
Russell Baker. fully Russell Wayne Baker
Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses.
John Chrysostom, fully Saint John Chrysostom
Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead.
Abstinence | Beauty | Body | Change | Friend | Sacrifice | Woman | Beauty |
All love at first, like generous wine, Ferments and frets until 'tis fine; But when 'tis settled on the lee, And from th' impurer matter free, Becomes the richer still the older, And proves the pleasanter the colder.
Better |
No rational order of divine intelligence unites species. The natural ties are genealogical along contingent pathways of history.
The progress of science requires more than new data; it needs novel frameworks and contexts. And where do these fundamentally new views of the world arise? They are not simply discovered by pure observation; they require new modes of thought. And where can we find them, if old modes do not even include the right metaphors? The nature of true genius must lie in the elusive capacity to construct these new modes from apparent darkness. The basic chanciness and unpredictability of science must also reside in the inherent difficulty of such a task.
By living deeply in the present moment we can understand the past better and we can prepare for a better future.
Health | Responsibility | Will |
Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive, that you can touch the miracle of being alive, then that is a kind of enlightenment. Many people are alive but don't touch the miracle of being alive.
First you have to look deeply into the nature of your anger, despair, and suffering to free yourself, so you can be available to others.
Compassion | Heart | Nothing |
To turn away a guest is poorest poverty; to bear with fools is mightiest might.
I have never believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man.
Little |
Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann
I will keep faith with death in my heart, yet will remember that faith with death and the dead is only wickedness and dark voluptuousness and enmity against humankind, if it is given power over our thought and contemplation. For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have no sovereignty over his thoughts. And with that, I wake up.
Art | Destroy | Good | Hate | Knowledge | Suffering | Art | Think |
Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
Call me a “rube” and a “hick,” but I’d lot rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.
Association | Convention | Law | Wrong | Association |
Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
After seeing kids play polo against big guys, it only shows that horses are the greatest equalizer in the world. No matter what you weigh, the little fellow is your equal on a horse.
Good |