This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the older order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.
Experience | Fear | Incredulity | Mankind | Nothing | Order | Success |
Christian contemplation is not something esoteric and dangerous. It is simply the experience of god that is given to a soul purified by humility and faith.
Contemplation | Experience | Faith | God | Humility | Soul | God | Contemplation |
J. C. Masterman, fully Sir John Cecil Masterman
We can learn from experience if we are ready to adapt that experience to changed conditions.
Experience | Learn |
This solitary response to reality is the deepest religious experience one can have. It is turning from the periphery of life to the core of existence. In this solitary moment it is as if one entered into the scheme of things.
Existence | Experience | Life | Life | Reality |
Robert M. Linder, fully Robert Mitchell Linder
Only by being permitted to experience the consequences of his actions will the child acquire a sense of responsibility; and within the limits marked by the demands of his safety this must be done. From such training we can expect many benefits to the person, one of which will certainly be the development of a natural rather than an imposed control over [himself].
Consequences | Control | Experience | Responsibility | Sense | Training | Will | Child |
Children who are closer to their birth, and thus to the experience of oneness, rightly reject hypocrisy.
Birth | Children | Experience | Hypocrisy | Oneness |
life begins here upon earth, and the soul of man lives and breathes where it loves; and love, in living faith, has strength enough to make the soul of man experience unity with God – two natures in a single spirit and love.
Earth | Enough | Experience | Faith | God | Life | Life | Love | Man | Soul | Spirit | Strength | Unity | God |
Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman
Transcendent, mystical, and spiritual experiences have a real biological component. The neurological changes that occur during meditation disrupt the normal processes of the brain – perceptually, emotionally, and linguistically – in ways that make the experience indescribable, awe-inspiring, unifying, and indelibly real. In fact, the intensity of such experiences often gives the practitioner a sense that a different or higher level of reality exists beyond our everyday perceptions of the world.
Awe | Experience | Meditation | Mystical | Reality | Sense | World |
Nikhilananda, fully Swami Nikhilananda, born Dinesh Chandra Das Gupta NULL
A spiritual truth is valid only when it does not contradict universal reason, one’s inner experience, and the experience of other seers of truth.
Experience | Reason | Truth |
A linear medium cannot represent the simultaneity of processing that goes on in the brain – the mixture of language and image, the intimation of diverging possibilities that we experience as free will. It cannot capture the secrets of organization by which the inanimate somehow comes to life, by which the neural passageway becomes the thought.
Experience | Free will | Language | Life | Life | Organization | Thought | Will |
Your desire is your prayer. Picture the fulfillment of your desire now and feel its reality and you will experience the joy of the answered prayer.
Desire | Experience | Fulfillment | Joy | Prayer | Reality | Will |
A living experience of God is the crowning knowledge attainable to a human mind.
Experience | God | Knowledge | Mind | God |
Eleanor Roosevelt, fully Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.
Confidence | Courage | Experience | Fear | Strength | Think |
There is only one blasphemy, and that is the refusal to experience joy.
Blasphemy | Experience | Joy |
Eleanor Roosevelt, fully Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
You gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face. You must do that which we think we cannot.
Confidence | Courage | Experience | Fear | Strength | Think |
Meaning in life is determined by how we choose to experience the world, not by how the world experiences us. We are all born with the freedom to put whatever meaning we’d like into our lives.
Generosity’s aim is twofold: we give freely to others, and we give freely to ourselves. Without both aspects, the experience is incomplete. If we give a gift freely, without attachment to a certain result or expectation of what will come back to us, that exchange celebrates freedom both within ourselves as the giver and the receiver… In a moment of pure giving, we really become one.
Expectation | Experience | Freedom | Generosity | Giving | Will | Expectation |
All living knowledge of God rests upon this foundation: that we experience Him in our lives as Will-to-Love.