This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. It is a wrong to his family. Children learn to read by being in the presence of books. The love of knowledge comes with reading and grows upon it. And the love of knowledge, in a young mind, is almost a warrant against the inferior excitement of passions and vices.
Books | Children | Excitement | Family | Knowledge | Love | Man | Means | Mind | Reading | Right | Wrong | Learn |
John Kenneth Galbraith, aka "Ken"
People are the common denominator of progress. So… no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated. It would be wrong to dismiss the importance of roads, railroads, power plants, mills and the other familiar furniture of economic development. . . . But we are coming to realize . . . that there is certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first.
Conquest | Improvement | People | Power | Progress | Wrong |
John Kenneth Galbraith, aka "Ken"
In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
Majority | Organization | Right | Wrong |
The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, utility, or the Great Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness... Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.
Creed | Ends | Freedom | Pain | Pleasure | Right | Wrong | Happiness |
Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
Mindful inquiry can heal low self-esteem, for the simple reason that a low self-estimation is really a wrong calculation, a misperception of reality.
Esteem | Estimation | Inquiry | Reality | Reason | Self | Self-esteem | Wrong |
It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created in years or even generations.
Love | Will | Wrong | Companionship | Think |
Most people have convictions about what is right and wrong based on religious beliefs, cultural roots, family background, personal experiences, laws, organizational values, professional norms and political habits. These are not the best values to make ethical decisions by--not because they are unimportant, but because they are not universal.
Convictions | Family | People | Right | Wrong |
Mencius, born Meng Ke or Ko NULL
No person is without sense of compassion, or a sense of shame, or a sense of courtesy, or a sense of right and wrong. The sense of compassion is the beginning of humanity; the sense of shame is the beginning of righteousness; the sense of courtesy is the beginning of decorum [li]; the sense of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Every person has within him these four beginnings; just as he has four limbs.
Beginning | Compassion | Courtesy | Humanity | Right | Righteousness | Sense | Shame | Wisdom | Wrong |
Morrie Schwartz, fully Morris "Morrie" S. Schwartz
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning in your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
Important | Life | Life | Meaning | People | Purpose | Purpose | Wrong | Think |