This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"A laxity due to decadence of old habits cannot be corrected by exhortations to restore old habits in their former rigidity. Even though it were abstractly desirable it is impossible. And it is not desirable because the inflexibility of old habits is precisely the chief cause of their decay and disintegration." - John Dewey
"Two perceptions cast their shadow over my existence. One consists in my realization that the world is inexplicably mysterious and full of suffering; the other, in the fact that I have been born into a period of spiritual decadence in mankind." - Albert Schweitzer
"The foundation of all understanding... is that no static maintenance of perfection is possible. This axiom is rooted in the nature of things. Advance or Decadence are the only choices offered to mankind. The pure conservative is fighting against the essence of the universe." - Alfred North Whitehead
"In periods of decadence only very independent geniuses have a chance to survive." - Eugène Delacroix, fully Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix