This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
May your thoughts, resolution and actions unify and become one so that 'unity' becomes possible.
Action | Mind | Resolution | Thought | Thought |
If we are good to people then we are reciprocated in the same manner but if we are bad to them then we will most obviously be paid in the same coin.
Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
Belief in heaven and hell is a big deal in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and some forms of doctrinaire Buddhism. For the rest of us it's simply meaningless. We don't live in order to die, we live in order to live.
Argument | Chance | Courage | Fighting | Kill | Man | Manliness | Men | Need | Organization | People | Purpose | Purpose | Worth | Old | Think |
Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
No, I don't mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression.
An amalgamation of cultures is taking place. I see it as proof that something is happening, something is being born, that we are in a phase when one age is succeeding another, when everything is possible. Yes, everything is possible, because our civilization does not have its own unified style, its own spirit, its own aesthetic.
Courage |
One should not let one’s mind to be overcome by melancholy. Melancholy or moroseness is a very bad thing. It kills (destroys) a man just as an angered serpent kills a child.
Action | Fame | Reputation | Will |
Anger is the enemy which takes one’s life. Anger is enemy with the face of a friend. Anger is like a very sharp sword. Anger destroys everything.
Action | Good | Man | Misfortune | Safe | Tragedy | Wise | Misfortune |
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 |
As against having beautiful workshops, studios, etc., one writes best in a cellar on a rainy day.
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 |
Those of our writers who have possessed a vivid personal talent have been paralyzed by a want of social background.
Courage | Man | Platitudes |
There is atonement, laid down by men of character, for one who kills a cow, consumes intoxicating drinks, steals or breaks one’s promise but there is no atonement for one who is ungrateful.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
The generosity of others suffer sore, as if she was responsible.
Circumstances | Courage | Men | Practice | Speculation |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
The world is a great dance where everyone is masked.
Courage |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
It cannot be a vice in men to be sensible of their strength.
Courage |