This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Purity of motivation is the goal; constancy of action is the way
There are three kinds of “honest” people: those who are dishonest but whose dishonest remains undetected; those who have stopped being dishonest because their fortunes are already made; and finally all those who would like to be dishonest, but who lack the courage or the opportunity.
Courage | Opportunity | People |
Faith is verification by the heart; confession by the tongue; action by the limbs.
Everyone likes to think that they have done reasonably well in life, so that it comes as a shock to find our children believing differently. The temptation is to tune them out; it takes much more courage to listen.
Children | Courage | Life | Life | Temptation | Temptation | Think |
Eddie Rickenbacker, formally Edward Vernon "Eddie" Rickenbacker
Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
Joseph Pothier, fully Dom Joseph Pothier
True devotion produces as of itself a song; song, in turn excites devotion, and this reciprocal action augments the value of both, like two mirrors, which, facing each other, multiply the same image even to the profondity, so to speak, of the infinite.
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
Faith, then, is a quality of human living. At its best it has taken the form of serenity and courage and loyalty and service; a quiet confidence and joy which enable one to feel at home in the universe, and to find meaning in the world and in one’s own life, a meaning that is profound and ultimate, and is stable no matter what may happen to oneself at the level of immediate event. Men and women of this kind of faith face catastrophe and confusion, affluence and sorrow, unperturbed; face opportunity with conviction and drive; and face others with cheerful charity.
Charity | Confidence | Courage | Faith | Joy | Life | Life | Loyalty | Loyalty | Meaning | Men | Opportunity | Quiet | Serenity | Service | Sorrow | Universe | World |
Fulton Sheen, fully Archbishop Fulton John Sheen
No amount of libido, or passion, no external force, and no inner prompting to sin can make the human action of man anything but free. We are never tempted beyond our strength. Every moral failure is ours alone, because our choices are our own.
Action | Failure | Force | Man | Passion | Sin | Strength | Failure |
The President must have not only the courage of his convictions but also the courage to change his convictions.
Change | Convictions | Courage |
Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tolle
To do whatever is required of you in any situation without it becoming a role that you identify with is an essential lesson in the art of living that each one of us is here to learn. You become most powerful in whatever you do if the action is performed for its own sake rather than as a means to protect, enhance, or conform to your role identity.