This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
A meaningful life is also not one that has merely instrumental value to some goal, even if the goal is divine. This suggests two important conclusions; First, meaningful activities are those that have a certain kind of non-instrumental value, and a meaningful life is one that consists of such activities. Second, derived from this, the meaning of a life must be in the living of it, or rather in the way it is lived. These are important conclusions, because they apply even if God has a purpose in mind for us and even if there is an everlasting afterlife. Even if there is a goal worth struggling for, the meaning is in the struggle.
Afterlife | God | Important | Life | Life | Meaning | Mind | Purpose | Purpose | Struggle | Worth | God | Value |
Bill Bradley, fully William Warren "Bill" Bradley
What is life worth if we don’t strive to build something that is bigger than we are and lasts longer than we do? For too long, we’ve not worried about future generations or met our obligations to each other. Instead, we have lived for ourselves, and for today. Such a world is simply not sustainable.
It is creative perception more than anything else that makes the individual feel that life is worth living.
Individual | Life | Life | Perception | Worth |
One hundred volumes of international law are not the equal of a few cannons; a handful of treaties are not worth a basket of gunpowder. Cannon and gunpowder are not aids for the enforcement of given moral principles, they are implements for the creation of morality where none exists.
Law | Morality | Principles | Worth |
A right is not effectual by itself, but only in relation to the obligation to which it corresponds... An obligation which goes unrecognized by anybody loses none of the full force of its existence. A right which goes unrecognized by anybody is not worth very much.
Existence | Force | Obligation | Right | Worth |
Lucie Campbell, fully Lucie Eddie Campbell-Williams
To win, one must be big enough to see the worth in others, big enough to cheer when others score.
A more peaceful way to live is to decide consciously which battles are worth fighting and which are better left alone.
The only theology worth doing is that which inspires and transforms lives, that which empowers us to participate in creating, liberating, and blessing the world.
Those who have attained things worth having in this world have worked while others idled, have persevered while others gave up in despair, have practiced ...the valuable habits of self-denial, industry, and singleness of purpose.
Despair | Industry | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Self-denial | World | Worth |
G. M. Trevelyan, fully George Macaulay Trevelyan
Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
Distinguish | Education | Reading | Worth |
The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television.
History | Ideas | Television | Worth |
There is only one philosophical problem that is really serious, and that is suicide. To decide whether life is worth living or not is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy.