This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Cardinal de Retz, Jean Francois-Paul de Gondil
Of all passions, fear weakens judgment most.
The fundamental principle of all morals, on the basis of which I have reasoned in all my writings... is that man is naturally good, loving justice and order; that there is absolutely no original perversity in the human heart, and that the first movements of nature are always right.
Character | Good | Heart | Justice | Man | Nature | Order | Right |
Our first duties are to ourselves; our first feelings are centered on self; all our instincts are at first directed to our own preservation and our own welfare. Thus the first notion of justice springs not from what we owe to others, but from what is due to us.
H. F. Rall, fully Harris Franklin
Freedom means mastery of your world. Fear and greed are common sources of bondage. We are afraid, beset by anxiety. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We seem so helpless over against the forces that move now without apparent thought for men. And our inner freedom is destroyed by greed. We think that if we only had enough goods we should be free, happy, without care. And so there comes the lust for money, and slavery to the world of things. The world can enslave; it can never make us free.
Anxiety | Anxiety | Care | Character | Enough | Fear | Freedom | Greed | Happy | Lust | Means | Men | Money | Slavery | Thought | Tomorrow | Will | World | Think | Thought |
Satchidananda, fully Swami Satchidananda, born C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder NULL
I would sit quietly for hours and hours in meditation, but nothing came to my heart. I didn’t feel or realize anything... Then I learned to pray for the sake of prayer and not for anything else. I would not be satisfied with anything but God. If our prayers are that sincere and our interest is only in God and nothing else, then God cannot sit quietly somewhere. He has to run to us. If we need help, it is always waiting. All we need to do is ask sincerely.
Character | God | Heart | Meditation | Need | Nothing | Prayer | Waiting | God |
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
Self-pity deprives us of the beauty of the past; fear deprives us of the beauty of the future; and jealousy deprives us of the beauty of the moment.
Beauty | Character | Fear | Future | Jealousy | Past | Pity | Self | Beauty |
Strong passions are the life of manly virtues. But they need not necessarily be evil because they are passions, and because they are strong. They may be likened to blood horses, that need training and the curb only, to enable those whom they carry to achieve the most glorious triumphs.
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
Fear arises in two forms. Either you fear losing what you have, or you fear not getting what you want.
Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz, aka Pinchas or Pinchos of Koretz
Imagine a man was standing before a king. Someone comes along and slaps that person in the face. Out of fear of the king the man will be almost oblivious to the blow. Moreover, he will think to himself, “I can’t retaliate now. The king witnessed what he did tome. If the king approves, nothing I do will help. If the king disapproves of what he did, the king himself will punish that person for what he has done to me.” Similarly we are in the presence of the Almighty and should not reply to insults.