This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Creativity is the retention throughout life of something that belongs properly to infant experience: the ability to create the world. . . . By creative living I mean not getting killed or annihilated all the time by compliance or by reacting to the world that impinges; I mean seeing everything afresh all the time… When we are surprised at ourselves we are being creative, and we find we can trust our own unexpected originality.
Ability | Compliance | Creativity | Experience | Life | Life | Originality | Time | Trust | World |
David Bohm, fully David Joseph Bohm
What is essential here is the presence of the spirit of dialogue, which is the ability to hold many points of view in suspension, along with a primary interest in the creation of common meaning.
Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman
It is no longer enough to be smart — all the technological tools in the world add meaning and value only if they enhance our core values, the deepest part of our heart. Acquiring knowledge is no guarantee of practical, useful application. Wisdom implies a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential.
Ability | Enough | Guarantee | Heart | Integration | Knowledge | Meaning | Wisdom | World | Value |
If there is any secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as from your own.
Thomas Edison, fully Thomas Alva Edison
The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it.
Ability | Effort | Focus | Labor | People | Success | Thinking | Will |
Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future.
Ability | Better | Confidence | Courage | Defeat | Endurance | Future | Opportunity | Struggle | Success | Obstacle |
You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine.
The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
Robert J. Shiller, fully Robert James "Bob" Shiller
The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence.
Ability | Attention | Focus | Important | Intelligence |
In order to change, one must first assume responsibility: one must commit oneself to some action. The word "responsibility" itself denotes that capability: "response"+"ability" - that is the ability to respond.
Ability | Action | Capability | Change | Order | Responsibility |