This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
But truths on which depends our main concern, that 'tis our shame and misery not to learn, shine by the side of every path we tread with such a lustre he that runs may read.
Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant
Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Wisdom |
Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant
Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty.
Cause | Civilization | Harmony | Hate | History | Men | Peace | Pessimism | Wisdom |
Wilhelm von Humboldt, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt
Real inward devotion knows no prayer but that arising from the depths of its own feelings.
Wisdom | Instruction |
Wilhelm von Humboldt, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt
Human nature must be something which always remains one and the same, but which may be carried out in manifold ways.
Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant
Power dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight and raising the haste of action.
Wilhelm von Humboldt, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt
The true end of Man, or that which is prescribed by the eternal and immutable dictates of reason, and not suggested by vague and transient desires, is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole.
Change | Duty | Lesson | Man | Peace | Power | Will | Wisdom | World | Happiness |
Observing this years ago I formulated a question? Is it possible to build an agriculture based on the prairie as standard or model? I saw a sharp contrast between the major features of the wheat field and the major features of the prairie. The wheat field features annuals in monoculture; the prairie features perennials in polyculture, or mixtures. Because all of our high-yielding crops are annuals or are treated as such, crucial questions must be answered. Can perennialism and high yield go together? If so, can a polyculture of perennials outyield a monoculture of perennials? Can such an ecosystem sponsor its own fertility? Is it realistic to think we can manage such complexity adequately to avoid the problem of pests outcompeting us?
Effort | Good | Important | Intelligence | Need | Noise | Tradition | Wisdom |
Werner Heisenberg, fully Werner Karl Heisenberg
Probability in mathematics or in statistical mechanics means a statement about our degree of knowledge of the actual situation. In throwing dice we do not know the fine details of the motion of our hands which determine the fall of the dice and therefore we say that the probability for throwing a special number is just one in six. The probability wave of Bohr, Kramers, Slater, however, meant more than that; it meant a tendency for something. It was a quantitative version of the old concept of `potentia’ in Aristotelian philosophy. It introduced something standing in the middle between the idea of an event and the actual event, a strange kind of physical reality just in the middle between possibility and reality.
Existence | Experiment | Harmony | Important | Language | Life | Life | Means | Nature | Wisdom | Work | Old |
Absence and death are the same -- only that in death there is no suffering.
If we believe that this particular pain is the one that will push the baby out of the womb and into our arms, we somehow try to make a place for that pain in our heart. Pain is still there: excruciating, terrible pain. But at the moment of birth, we rarely feel betrayal or rage; we somehow feel that this is simply pain that has come with life.
People | Perception | Rest | Sabbath | Time | Wisdom | Work |
W. Brugh Joy, fully William Brugh Joy
If you try to go into the unconscious with your ordinary awareness and your value system as you have known them to be, you will quickly either be pushed out, or you will stampede out, because you are holding the wrong vehicle to engage the authentic beingness. This is not necessarily the preferential view we often have of spiritually developed people. In fact, if anything, that is a compensation to a lot of hidden material. The art of being present for another individual is an extremely valuable resource when you are working with others or with yourself – how to bring as much of your awareness to experience whoever and whatever the other being is. When we go into the inner universe we have access to all the revelatory material, the psychic material, the intuitive material. When we open all the ranges, see what begins to stir you – it might be in the form of images, voices, sudden knowing, and this is the material you swim in when you connect with someone. Otherwise, you are just looking at surface masks.
We have reached the point, however, where we no longer have the luxury to indulge in self-centered comfort and personal acquisition or to escape into religious pursuits at the cost of collective interests. For us there can be no escape, no withdrawal, no private arena in which we can turn our backs on the sorrows of humanity, saying, “I am not responsible. Others have created a mess; let them mend it.” The writing on the world’s wall is plain: “Learn to live together or in separateness you die!” The choice is ours.
Awareness | Love | Purity | Soul | Will | Wisdom | Awareness |