This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
I believe in the dignity of being and, even more so, of becoming... Death may not be an end but only a passage, a dimensional leap. And what if, once free of the slavery of three and four dimensions, once released from space and time, we were to discover unimaginable realities beyond our poor five senses?
The ideal social state is not that in which each gets an equal amount of wealth, but in which each gets in proportion to his contribution to the general stock.
Margaret Fuller, fully Sara Margaret Fuller, Marchese Ossoli
Only the dreamer shall understand realities, though in truth his dreaming must be not out of proportion to his waking.
Truth | Wisdom | Understand |
Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud
It is easy enough to endow the Matterhorn with another and less exalted meaning. The scale of 1:50,000 may be roughly the proportion in which fate fulfills our wishes, and in which we ourselves carry out our good intentions.
The dignity of labor depends not on what you do, but how you do it.
If we look abroad upon the great multitude of mankind, and endeavor to trace out the principles of action in every individual, it will, I think, seem highly probably that ambition runs through the whole species, and that every man, in proportion to the vigor of his complexion, is more or less actuated by it.
Action | Ambition | Individual | Man | Mankind | Principles | Will | Wisdom | Ambition |
Redundancy of language is never found with deep reflection. Verbiage may indicate observation, but not thinking. He who thinks much, says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner. He tries to compress as much thought as possible into a few words. On the contrary, the man who talks everlastingly and promiscuously, who seems to have an exhaustless magazine of sound, crowds so many words into his thoughts that he always obscures, and very frequently conceals them.
Ideas | Language | Little | Man | Observation | Reflection | Sound | Thinking | Thought | Will | Wisdom | Words | Thought |
A creditor is worse than a master; for a master owns only your person, a creditor owns your dignity and can belabour that.
Manilius, fully Marcus Manilius NULL
Every one is poorer in proportion as he has more wants, and counts not what he has, but wishes only for what he has not.
Livy, formally Titus Livius, aka Titus Livy NULL
Apprehensions are greater in proportion as things are unknown.
Wisdom |
The fundamental rights, like the right to existence and life; the right to personal freedom or to conduct one’s own life as master of oneself and of one’s acts, responsible for them before God and the law of the community; the right to the pursuit of the perfection of moral and rational human life; the right to keep one’s body whole; the right to private ownership of material goods, which is a safeguard of the liberties of the individual; the right to marry according to one’s choice and to raise a family which will be assured of the liberties due it; the right of association, the respect for human dignity in each individual, whether or not he represents an economic value for society - all these rights are rooted in the vocation of the person (a spiritual and free agent) to the order of absolute values and to a destiny superior to time.
Absolute | Association | Body | Choice | Conduct | Destiny | Dignity | Existence | Family | Freedom | God | Individual | Law | Life | Life | Order | Perfection | Personal freedom | Respect | Right | Rights | Society | Time | Will | Wisdom | Society | Respect | God | Value |
Belief in immortality gives dignity to life and enables us to endure cheerfully those trials which come to us all. As the thought of immortality occupies our minds, we gain a clearer conception of duty and are inspired to cultivate character. Living for the future is not coward's philosophy, but an inspiration to noble and unselfish activity.
Belief | Character | Dignity | Duty | Future | Immortality | Inspiration | Life | Life | Philosophy | Thought | Trials | Wisdom | Thought |
Karl Marx (1818-1883) German Philosopher, Socialist and Friedrich Engels
In proportion as the antagonism between the classes vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.
Antagonism | Will | Wisdom |
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.
Alfred de Musset, fully Alfred Louis Charles de Musset
Vanity and dignity are incompatible with each other.