This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
He must summon his people to be with him – yet stand above, not squat beside them. He must question his own wisdom and judgment – but not too severely. He must hear the opinions and heed the powers of others – but not too abjectly. He must appease the doubts of his critic and assuage the hurts of the adversary – sometimes. He must ignore their views and achieve their defeat – sometimes… He must respect action – without becoming intoxicated with his own. He must have a sense of purpose inspiring him to magnify the trivial event to serve his distant aim – and to grasp the thorniest crisis as if it were the merest nettle. He must be pragmatic, calculating, and earthbound – and still know when to spurn the arithmetic of expediency for the act of brave imagination, the sublime gamble with no hope other than the boldness of his vision
Action | Boldness | Critic | Defeat | Hope | Imagination | Judgment | People | Purpose | Purpose | Question | Respect | Sense | Vision | Wisdom | Respect | Crisis |
Carl Jung, fully Carl Gustav Jung
To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem.
Carl Jung, fully Carl Gustav Jung
The doctor should not strive to heal at all costs. One has to be exceedingly careful not to impose one’s own will and conviction on the patient... Sometimes it is really a question whether you are allowed to rescue a man from the fate he must undergo for the sake of his further development.
Carl Jung, fully Carl Gustav Jung
The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interest upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance.
Thomas Lickona, fully Thomas Edward Lickona
Schools inevitably teach good or bad values in everything they do. Every interaction, whether part of the academic curriculum or the human curriculum of rules, roles, and relationships, has the potential to affect a child’s values and character for good or for ill. The question is not whether to do values education but whether to do it well.
Golda Meir, originally named Goldie Mabovitch, later Goldie Myerson
I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.
One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.
Jean Monnet, fully Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet
Everybody is ambitious. The question is whether he is ambitious to be or ambitious to do.
Question |
To approach the living question with the mind alone is impossible. The intellect must be coupled with feeling in order to stir a person to authentic inquiry. Real philosophy recognizes that ideas have sensations and emotions connected with them, and that one responds to them with the whole of oneself.
Emotions | Ideas | Inquiry | Mind | Order | Philosophy | Question | Intellect |
I question whether God himself would wish me to hide behind the principles of non-violence while innocent people were being slaughtered.
God | People | Principles | Question | God |
E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
What I wish to emphasize is the duality of the human requirement when it comes to the question of size: there is no single answer. For his different purposes man needs different structures, both small ones and large ones, some exclusive and some comprehensive… For constructive work, the principal task is always the restoration of some kind of balance. Today, we suffer from an almost universal idolatry of giantism. It is therefore necessary to insist on the virtues of smallness – where this applies. (If there were a prevailing idolatry of smallness, irrespective of subject or purpose, one would have to try and exercise influence in the opposite direction.)
Balance | Duality | Influence | Man | Purpose | Purpose | Question | Size | Work |
Robert V. Taylor, aka The Very Reverend Robert V. Taylor
If there is a time of judgment, instead of theological or institutional litmus tests, the only question asked about our life and spirituality will be "Did you love with abandonment?"
Judgment | Life | Life | Love | Question | Spirituality | Time | Will |
The question is not: Do we identify with something or not? The question is: What do we identify with?
Question |
Lord Trent, aka Baron Trent, Sir Jesse Boot, 1st Baronet
As I learnt very early in my life in Whitehall, the acid test of any political question is: What is the alternative?
Frances Wright, known as Fanny Wright
I am not going to question your opinions. I am not going to meddle with your belief. I am not going to dictate to you mine. All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.
Belief | Faith | Nature | Question | Reason | Search | Understand |