This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
If it is the great delusion of moralists to suppose that all previous ages were less sinful than their own, then it is the great delusion of intellectuals to supposed that all previous ages were less sick.
John T. McNicholas, fully John Timothy McNicholas
The God-given rights of parents are not understood or are ignored by our secularist educators and by many school administrators who, in the delusion of sovereignty, act as though they, not the parents, have complete control of the education of the child.
Character | Control | Delusion | Education | God | Parents | Rights |
One cannot properly appreciate the human realities so long as one labors under the adolescent delusion that people get the fates they deserve.
Haku'un Ryoko Yasutani, aka Yasutani Roshi
The fundamental delusion of humanity is to supposed that I am here and you are out there.
Dionysius the Areopagite, aka Saint Dionysius the Areopagite NULL
The simple, absolute, and unchangeable mysteries of heavenly Truth lie hidden in the dazzling obscurity of the secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their darkness.
Absolute | Darkness | Obscurity | Obscurity | Silence | Truth |
A human being is part of the whole called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self [ego]. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.
Beauty | Compassion | Consciousness | Delusion | Ego | Experience | Feelings | Humanity | Nature | Prison | Rest | Self | Sense | Space | Thinking | Time | Universe | Value |
Dionysius the Areopagite, aka Saint Dionysius the Areopagite NULL
Guide us to the topmost height of mystic love where the simple absolute and unchangeable mysteries of heavenly truth lie hidden in the dazzling obscurity of the Secret Silence.
Truth, not in distinct and clear-cut definitions but in the limpid obscurity of a single intuition that unites all dogmas in one simple Light, shining into the soul directly from God’s eternity, without the medium of created concept, without the intervention of symbols or of language or the likeness of material things. Here the Truth is One Whom we not only know and possess but by Whom we are known and possessed. Here theology ceases to be a body of abstractions and becomes a Living Reality Who is God Himself.
Body | Eternity | God | Intuition | Language | Light | Obscurity | Obscurity | Reality | Soul | Theology | Truth | God |
Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.
P. D. Premasiri, fully Pahalawattage Don Premasiri
Fanaticism and intolerance often result from the delusion that, "this alone is the truth and everything else is false," causing people to commit atrocities in the name of "truth."
Delusion | Fanaticism | Intolerance | People | Truth |