This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The origin of all wars is the pursuit of wealth, and we are forced to pursue wealth because we live in slavery to the cares of the body.
The crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit which finds him in employment and happiness.
The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him in employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadwood, or canals, or statues, or songs.
As with the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of truth is itself gratifying whereas the consummation often turns out to be elusive.
Truth |
Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron
Man in pursuit of worldly gain may be compared to a thirsty man within reach of briny waters: the more he drinks, the thirstier he is.
Man |
The only thing we really have is nowness, is now. Sometimes when I teach these things, a person will come up to me afterward and say: “All this seems obvious! I’ve always known it. Tell me something new.” I say to him or her: “Have you actually understood, and realized, the truth of impermanence? Have you so integrated it with your every thought, breath, and movement that your life has been transformed? Ask yourself these two questions: Do I remember at every moment that I am dying, and everyone and everything else is, and so treat all beings at all times with compassion? Has my understanding of death and impermanence become so keen and so urgent that I am devoting every second to the pursuit of enlightenment? If you can answer ‘yes’ to both of these, then you have really understood impermanence.”
Death | Life | Life | Teach | Truth | Understanding | Will |
Theodor Herzl, born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl
There was nothing original in the conception that the world was round; it was held by all educated astronomers of the time. The greatness of Columbus was rather in the courage that he displayed in venturing into the unknown sea to prove the validity of his thesis and his pertinacity in the pursuit of his project.
Will Durant, fully William James "Will" Durant
So I say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with skepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure. A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean.
Civilization | Individual | Pleasure | Religion | Skepticism | Stoic | Unbelief |
Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
Benjamin Cardozo, fully Benjamin Nathan Cardozo
The submergence of self in the pursuit of an ideal, the readiness to spend oneself without measure, prodigally, almost ecstatically, for something intuitively apprehended as great and noble, spend oneself one knows not why - some of us like to believe that this is what religion means.
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Defense | Justice | Liberty | Moderation | Virtue | Virtue | Moderation |
David Eli Lilienthal, "Mr. TVA"
The essential ingredient of democracy is not doctrine but intelligence, not authority but reason, not cynicism but faith in men, faith in God. Our strength lies in the fearless pursuit of truth by the minds of men who are free.
Authority | Cynicism | Democracy | Doctrine | Faith | God | Intelligence | Men | Reason | Strength | Truth |
The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
Excellence | Excellence |
It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.
Fulfillment | Happiness |
The faculty of imagination is the great spring of human activity, and the principal source of human improvement. As it delights in presenting to the mind scenes and characters more perfect than those which we are acquainted with, it prevents us from ever being completely satisfied with our present condition or with our past attainments, and engages us continually in the pursuit of some untried enjoyment, or of some ideal excellence. Hence the ardour of the selfish to better their fortunes, and to add to their personal accomplishments; and hence the zeal of the patriot and philosopher to advance the virtue and the happiness of the human race. Destroy this faculty, and the condition of man will become as stationary as that of the brutes.
Better | Destroy | Enjoyment | Excellence | Human race | Imagination | Improvement | Man | Mind | Past | Present | Race | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Zeal | Happiness |