This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
From the depths of slumber, As I ascend the spiral stairway of wakefulness, I whisper: God! God! God! Thou art the food, and when I break my fast Of nightly separation from Thee, I taste Thee, and mentally say: God! God! God! No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind Ever keeps turning on Thee, And in the battle din of activity my silent war-cry is ever: God! God! God! When boisterous storms of trials shriek And worries howl at me, I drown their noises, loudly chanting: God! God! God! When my mind weaves dreams With threads of memories, On that magic cloth I do emboss: God! God! God! Every night, in time of deepest sleep, My peace dreams and calls: Joy! Joy! Joy! And my joy comes singing evermore: God! God! God! In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping, Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving, My soul constantly hums, unheard by any: God! God! God!
Art | Battle | Dreams | Joy | Magic | Mind | Peace | Soul | Taste | Time | Trials | Art |
Paul Gaugin, fully Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin
There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.
Taste |
Paul Gaugin, fully Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin
Beware of luxury! Beware of acquiring the taste and need for it, under the pretext of providing for the morrow.
Paul Gaugin, fully Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin
Silence! I am learning to know the silence of a Tahitian night.
Marriage, families, all relationships are more a process of learning the dance rather than finding the right dancer.
Man struggles to survive, not to succumb… Learning something means coming into contact with a world of which you know nothing. In order to learn, you must be humble… Many of us are returning from a long journey during which we were forced to search for things that were of no interest to us. Now we realize that they were false. But this return cannot be made without pain, because we have been away for a long time and feel that we are strangers in our own land. It will take some time to find the friends who also left, and the places where our roots and treasures lie. But this will happen… Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place… Miracles only happen if you believe in miracles.
Journey | Learning | Means | Miracles | Order | People | Search | Time | Will | World | Friends |
Pema Chödrön, born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown
Learning how to be kind to ourselves, learning how to respect ourselves, is important. The reason it's important is that, fundamentally, when we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn't just ourselves that we're discovering. We're discovering the universe.
The young all have the same dream: to save the world. Some quickly forget this dream, convinced that there are more important things to do, like having a family, earning money, traveling, and learning a foreign language. Others, though, decide that it really is possible to make a difference in society and to shape the world we will hand on to future generations… There is a work of art each of us was destined to create. That is the central point of our life, and -no matter how we try to deceive ourselves -we know how important it is to our happiness. Usually, that work of art is covered by years of fears, guilt and indecision. But, if we decide to remove those things that do not belong, if we have no doubt as to our capability, we are capable of going forward with the mission that is our destiny. That is the only way to live with honor.
Art | Doubt | Future | Guilt | Important | Learning | Mission | Society | Will | Work | World | Society | Art |
A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires… A teacher isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows… A disciple... can never imitate his guide's steps. You have your own way of living your life, of dealing with problems, and of winning. Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.
I have drunken deep of joy, And I will taste no other wine tonight.
Peter F. Drucker, fully Peter Ferdinand Drucker
We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.
Peter F. Drucker, fully Peter Ferdinand Drucker
Universities won't survive. The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast.
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.
Capacity | Heart | Hunger | Learning | Means | Relationship | World |
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes.
Petrarch, anglicized from Italian name Francesco Petrarca NULL
Books have led some to learning and others to madness, when they swallow more than they can digest.
Learning |
As a matter of strict logic, perhaps, there is no contradiction in taking an interest in animals on both compassionate and gastronomic grounds. If a person is opposed to the infliction of suffering on animals, but not to the painless killing of animals, he could consistently eat animals that had lived free of all suffering and been instantly, painlessly slaughtered. Yet practically and psychologically it is impossible to be consistent in one's concern for nonhuman animals while continuing to dine on them. If we are prepared to take the life of another being merely in order to satisfy our taste for a particular type of food, then that being is no more than a means to our end. In time we will come to regard pigs, cattle, and chickens as things for us to use, no matter how strong our compassion may be; and when we find that to continue to obtain supplies of the bodies of these animals at a price we are able to pay it is necessary to change their living conditions a little, we will be unlikely to regard these changes too critically. The factory farm is nothing more than the application of technology to the idea that animals are means to our ends. Our eating habits are dear to us and not easily altered. We have a strong interest in convincing ourselves that our concern for other animals does not require us to stop eating them. No one in the habit of eating an animal can be completely without bias in judging whether the conditions in which that animal is reared caused suffering.
Change | Compassion | Contradiction | Habit | Life | Life | Means | Nothing | Order | Price | Regard | Suffering | Taste | Technology | Time | Will |
Advocates of psychiatric drugs often claim that the medications improve learning and the ability to benefit from psychotherapy, but the contrary is true. There are no drugs that improve mental function, self-understanding, or human relations. Any drug that affects mental processes does so by impairing them.
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it... This then, is the basic meaning of a learning organization -an organization that is continuously expanding its capacity to create its future. Survival learning or what is more often called adaptive learning is important - indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization, adaptive learning must be joined by generative learning, learning that enhances our capacity to create.
Capacity | Important | Learning | Meaning | Organization | Relationship | Survival | World |
Peter Senge, fully Peter Michael Senge
It is not the absence of defensiveness that characterizes learning teams but the way defensiveness is faced.