This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
So that, upon the whole, there appears not, throughout all nature, any one instance of connexion which is conceivable by us. All events seem entirely loose and separate. One event follows another; but we never can observe any ties between them. They seem conjoined, but never connected. And as we have no idea of any thing which never appeared to our outward sense or inward sentiment, the necessary conclusion seems to be that we have no idea of connexion or power at all, and that these words are absolutely without meaning, when employed either in philosophical reasonings or common life. But there still remains one method of avoiding this conclusion, and one source which we have not yet examined.
Events | Life | Life | Meaning | Method | Nature | Power | Sense | Sentiment | Wisdom | Words |
John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy
The basis of effective government is public confidence.
Confidence | Government | Public | Wisdom | Government |
Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla
Everything begins with an idea. Your thoughts are the blueprint for your life. Your thoughts today create your world of tomorrow. Change your thoughts and you will change your world. Through the power of your thinking, you are continuously drawing kinds of events into your life. You have absolute control over your reactions.
Absolute | Change | Control | Events | Life | Life | Power | Thinking | Tomorrow | Will | Wisdom | World |
Alphonse de Lamartine, fully Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine
He is no true man who ever treats women with anything but the profoundest respect. She is no true woman who cannot inspire and does not take care to enforce this. Any real rivalry of the sexes is the sheerest folly and most unnatural nonsense.
Care | Folly | Man | Nonsense | Respect | Rivalry | Wisdom | Woman |
Alphonse de Lamartine, fully Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine
Nature has given women two painful but heavenly gifts, which distinguish them, and often raise them above human nature - compassion and enthusiasm. By compassion, they devote themselves; by enthusiasm they exalt themselves.
Compassion | Distinguish | Enthusiasm | Human nature | Nature | Wisdom |
We are making the price of power much too high in this society. I worry that we are making the conditions of public life so tough that nobody except people really obsessed with power will be willing finally to pay that price. That would be tragic from the point of view of public well-being.
Life | Life | People | Power | Price | Public | Society | Will | Wisdom | Worry |
Politicians tend to live "in character," and many a public figure has come to imitate the journalism which describes him.
Successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies. The decisive consideration is not whether the proposition is good but whether it is popular -- not whether it will work well and prove itself but whether the active talking constituents like it immediately. Politicians rationalize this servitude by saying that in a democracy public men are the servants of the people.
Consideration | Democracy | Good | Men | Public | Servitude | Talking | Will | Wisdom | Work |
Extensive moralizing within the ecological movement has given the public the false impression that they are being asked to make a sacrifice - to show more responsibility, more concern, and a nicer moral standard. But all of that would flow naturally and easily if the self were widened and deepened so that the protection of nature was felt and perceived as protection of our very selves.
Impression | Nature | Public | Responsibility | Sacrifice | Self | Wisdom |
The study of proverbs may be more instructive and comprehensive than the most elaborate scheme of philosophy.
Philosophy | Proverbs | Study | Wisdom |