This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
It cannot be too often repeated that in this country, in the long run, we all of us tend to go up or go down together. If the average of well-being is high, it means that the average wage-worker, the average farmer, and the average business man are all alike well-off. If the average shrinks, there is not one of these classes which will not feel the shrinkage. Of course, there are always some men who are not affected by good times, just as there are some men who are not affected by bad times. But speaking broadly, it is true that if prosperity comes, all of us tend to share more or less therein, and that if adversity comes each of us, to a greater or less extent, feels the tension.
A pygmy standing on the outward crust of this small planet, his far-reaching spirit stretches outward to the infinite, and there alone finds rest.
Progress |
I am not fully informed of the practices at Harvard, but there is one from which we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied, I believe, by nearly every college and academy in the United States. That is, the holding the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular vocations to which they are destined. We shall, on the contrary, allow them uncontrolled choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and require elementary qualification only, and sufficient age.
Change | Man | Manners | Progress | Society | Society | Truths |
I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. My hopes indeed sometimes fail, but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.
Character | Government | Men | Mind | Patriotism | Progress | Public | Will | Wisdom | Government |
It is a palpable falsehood to say we can have specie for our paper whenever demanded. Instead, then, of yielding to the cries of scarcity of medium set up by speculators, projectors and commercial gamblers, no endeavors should be spared to begin the work of reducing it by such gradual means as may give time to private fortunes to preserve their poise, and settle down with the subsiding medium; and that, for this purpose, the States should be urged to concede to the General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive power of establishing banks of discount for paper.
Individual | Men | Nature | Progress | Property | Question |
It is, indeed, of little consequence who governs us, if they sincerely and zealously cherish the principles of union and republicanism.
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Action | Individual | Light | Men | Nature | Power | Progress | Property | Thinking | Instruction |
The oath he has taken to support the Constitution imperiously requires the instantaneous dismissing of such officer; and I hold the President criminal if he permitted such to remain. To appoint a monarchist to conduct the affairs of a Republic is like appointing an atheist to the priesthood.
Government | Liberty | Progress | Government |
I'm not sure I understand how responsibility for our choices makes sense if they are not determined.
Progress |
Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman
America is the greatest engine of innovation that has ever existed, and it can't be duplicated anytime soon, because it is the product of a multitude of factors: extreme freedom of thought, an emphasis on independent thinking, a steady immigration of new minds, a risk-taking culture with no stigma attached to trying and failing, a non-corrupt bureaucracy, and financial markets and a venture capital system that are unrivaled at taking new ideas and turning them into global products.
Business | Individual | Progress | Success | Business |
W. D. Joske, fully William "Bill"
Many people are afraid of philosophy precisely because they dread being forced to the horrifying conclusion that life is meaningless, so that human activities are ultimately insignificant, absurd and inconsequential.
We are American farmers. We are Americans. We are farmers. Our grand sires freed this virgin continent,plowed it from East to West, and gave it to us.This land is for us and for our children to make richer and more fruitful. We grow foods, fibers - fifteen times as much as we use. We grow men and women -- farmers, Presidents, and Senators, generals of industry,captains of commerce, missionaries, builders. Communists would call us capitalists, because we own land and we own tools. Capitalists might choose to call us laborers,because we work with our hands. Others may call us managers, because we direct men and manage materials. Our children call us "Dad." We are also deacons, stockholders, mechanics, veterinarians, electricians, school board members, Rotarians, voters, scientists,neighbors, men of good will. Our rules are Nature's rules, the laws of God. We command the magic of the seasons and the miracles of science, because we obey Nature's rules. Our raw materials are soil and seed, animals, the atmosphere and the rain, and the mighty sun. We work with brains. We toil with musclesof steel, fed by the fires of lightning and boils from the inner earth. We are partners with the laboratory, with the factory, and with all the people. We provide industry with ever-renewable raw materials from the inexhaustible world of plants. We buy products from the labor of every fellow-citizen.Our efficiencies have raised great cities and happy towns, and have given all the people meat and bread. We believe in work and in honor We believe in freedom. We are grateful for the American freedom that has let us earn so many blessings. We know that liberty is our most precious possession. At the ballot-boxes and on the battlefield we shall defend it. We have proven a new pattern of abundance. We pray that we may also help to make a pattern for peace.
Progress |
William D. Hoard, fully William Dempster Hoard
The fool has set in his heart that he can get more money through the tiring of his muscle and the starvation of his brain-but he can’t.