This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The significance of man is that he is that part of the universe that asks the question, 'What is the significance of man?' He alone can stand apart imaginatively and, regarding himself and the universe in their eternal aspects, pronounce a judgment: The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it.
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
Religion used to provide a generally accepted understanding of our place in the universe…. The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and examining ourselves - without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster.
Mind | Religion | Understanding | Universe |
Anguish of mind has driven thousands to suicide; anguish of body, none. This proves that the health of the mind is of far more consequence to our happiness than the health of the body, although both are deserving of much more attention than either receives.
For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. ... That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.
Good | Universe | Understand |
The essential and unbounded mercy of my Creator is the foundation of my hope, and a broader and surer the universe cannot give me.
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
The noble person calls attention to the good point in others; he does not call attention to their defects. The small person does just the reverse of this.
Dan Millman, born Daniel Jay Millman
Self-trust comes through direct experience, which remind us to pay attention first to our own experience, not to advice from a book or teacher.
Advice | Attention | Experience | Self | Trust |
The universe is a gigantic cosmic living being - and that is who I am.
Universe |
Dante, full name Durante degli Alighieri, aka Dante Alighieri NULL
The whole universe is but the footprint of the divine goodness.
Universe |
What lies at the end of the process cannot be what ultimately matters. It seems clear that the point is the process itself and the adventure of trying to enrich and up-level that process despite hazards and risks. The point is the game and the playing of it. We are an adventuring universe that is attempting to raise the quality of the adventure. Sometimes succeeding. Sometimes not.
Taste and elegance, though they are reckoned only among the small and secondary morals, yet are of no mean importance in the regulation of life. A moral taste is not of force to turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the blandishments of pleasure.
Elegance | Force | Life | Life | Pleasure | Regulation | Taste | Virtue | Virtue | Vice |
War suspends the rules of moral obligation, and what is long suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated. Civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the people. They vitiate their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert their natural taste and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens in a hostile light, the whole body of our nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very nature of affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity, whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred and rage, when the communion of our country is dissolved.
Body | Charity | Danger | Equity | Justice | Light | Manners | Nature | Obligation | People | Politics | Rage | Taste | War | Danger |
It is as common for men to change their taste as it is uncommon for them to change their inclination.
Change | Inclination | Men | Taste |