This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The previous regime — armed with its arrogant and intolerant ideology — reduced man to a force of production, and nature to a tool of production. In this it attacked both their very substance and their mutual relationship. It reduced gifted and autonomous people, skillfully working in their own country, to the nuts and bolts of some monstrously huge, noisy and stinking machine, whose real meaning was not clear to anyone.
Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community.
Responsibility | World |
Life cannot be destroyed for good, neither... can history be brought entirely to a halt. A secret streamlet trickles on beneath the heavy lid of inertia and pseudo-events, slowly and inconspicuously undercutting it. It may be a long process, but one day it must happen: the lid will no longer hold and will start to crack. This is the moment when something once more begins visibly to happen, something truly new and unique ... something truly historical, in the sense that history again demands to be heard.
There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.
Ability | Absurd | Awareness | Courage | Good | Gratitude | Irony | Life | Life | Meaning | Responsibility | Sense | Vigilance | Awareness |
Stealing the wealth of others, coveting another man’s wife and doubting the integrity and character of friends - these three lead to one’s destruction.
Consequences | Kill | People | Wealth | Will |
V. S. Pritchett, fully Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett
The American Civil War was the first modern war. It is true that the Crimean War, some eight years earlier, has resemblances with the American conflict. There is the awakening of public concern for the care of casualties, a concern which had grown with medical knowledge. But the Crimean War was fought in a small area. It was fought by professional soldiers--the British commander-in-chief directed operations from his private yacht to which he returned to dine and sleep every night--and the casualties, though heavy, were than half of those suffered in America, where a million men died in the field, the hospitals and the prison camps. The Civil War involved everyone, the armies became conscript armies almost at once. The professional soldiers were put to the task of training the man in the street.
There are no exact guidelines. There are probably no guidelines at all. The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance. Awareness of all the most dangerous kinds of vanity, both in others and in ourselves. A good mind. A modest certainty about the meaning of things. Gratitude for the gift of life and the courage to take responsibility for it. Vigilance of spirit.
Ability | Absurd | Courage | Good | Gratitude | Life | Life | Meaning | Responsibility | Sense | Sensibility |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
The great vanity of those who do not realize, is only sensible to believe.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Do not judge a man by what he does not know, but what he knows.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
The falsest of all philosophies is that which, under the pretext of delivering men from the embarrassment of their passions, counsels idleness and the abandonment and neglect of themselves.
Misfortune | Misfortune |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Passions have taught men passion.
Opinion |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
The passions of men have learned the reason.
Misfortune | Misfortune |
Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun
If you have no obstacles in your own mind, then outer obstacles will not hinder you or cause you worry.
Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun
If your ideas aren’t working, look within yourself; if you are kind to people and they don’t reciprocate, take a look at your kindness. If you give people orders and they don’t follow them, take a look at your orders. If you pay respect to people and they don’t return it, take a look at your manners.
Good |
Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
Think not rightly to examine yourself by looking only to your own inner motives and feelings, which are the hardest of all things to analyze if looked at in the abstract, and apart from outward actions. But ask, "Do I believe all that God teaches, and endeavor to do all that God commands?" For in this is the evidence of true love to him.
Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun
The Buddha says you can believe in your God and Buddha too. Your God is like a parent to you, his child. If you do something bad, he forgives you. Buddha has an adult-to-adult relationship with you. If you do something bad, you are accountable for your actions.