This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Vitruvius, fully Marcus Vitruvius Pollio NULL
For Nature has so planned the human body that the face from the chin to the top of the forehead and the roots of the hair is a tenth part; also the palm of the hand from the wrist to the top of the middle finger is as much; the head from the chin to the crown, an eighth part; from the top to the breast with the bottom of the neck to the roots of the hair, a sixth part; from the middle of the breast to the crown, a fourth part; a third part of the height of the face is from the bottom of the chin to the bottom of the nostrils; the nose from the bottom of the nostrils to the line between the brows, as much; from that line to the roots of the hair, the forehead is given as the third part. The foot is a sixth of the height of the body; the cubit a quarter, the breast also a quarter. The other limbs also have their own proportionate measurements. And by using these, ancient painters and famous sculptors have attained great and unbounded distinction.
Vladimir Lenin, fully Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
To carry on a war for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie, a war which is a hundred times more difficult, protracted and complex than the most stubborn of ordinary wars between states, and to renounce in advance any change of tack, or any utilization of a conflict of interests (even if temporary) among one’s enemies, or any conciliation or compromise with possible allies (even if they are temporary, unstable, vacillating, or conditional allies)—is that not ridiculous in the extreme?”
Equality | Family | Ideas | Principles | Struggle | Weapons | World |
Vladimir Nabokov, fully Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
I felt instinctively that toilets - as also telephones - happened to be for reasons unfathomable, the points where my destiny was liable to catch. We all have such fateful objects - it may be a recurrent landscape, a number in another - carefully chosen by the gods to attract events of special significance for us: here shall John always stumble; there shall Jane's heart always break.
Compassion is a spontaneous movement of wholeness. It is not a studied decision to help the poor, to be kind to the unfortunate. Compassion has a tremendous momentum that naturally, choicelessly moves us to worthy action. It has the force of intelligence, creativity, and the strength of love. Compassion cannot be cultivated; it derives neither from intellectual conviction nor from emotional reaction. It is simply there when the wholeness of life becomes a fact that is truly lived.
Absolute | Compassion | Life | Life | Nothing | Oneness | Principles | Reality | Will |
Even the most seemingly materialistic daydreams - the transformed life we imagine in a new dress, a new car, a new house - allow us to rise above the here and now, projecting ourselves into an idealized future. In the process, we learn truths about who we are, what we desire, and who we might become. Those things may matter only to our minds, but that doesn't make them any less valuable or any less real.
Ideals | Meaning | Principles | Purpose | Purpose |
Zoroaster, aka Zarathustra or Zarathushtra Spitama NULL
The teacher of evil destroys the lore, he by his teaching destroys the design of life, he prevents the possession of Good Thought from being prized. These words of my spirit I wail unto you, O Mazda, and to the Right.
Evil | Faith | Good | Land | Mind | Order | Principles | Prosperity | Blessed |
Zoroaster, aka Zarathustra or Zarathushtra Spitama NULL
He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers.
Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl
Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself—be it meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself... What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.
It is the beginning of the worst moment. All of the flood barriers are at their maximum level.
Good | Manners | People | Principles | Sense | Understanding | Politeness |
V. S. Pritchett, fully Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett
The Canadian spirit is cautious, observant and critical where the American is assertive.
Esteem | Life | Life | Literature | Loss |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
It is sad that goodness does not always accompany the force.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
It is difficult to estimate as someone he wants to be.
Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun
In the future, I hope all of you will look after yourselves and supervise yourselves. With such self-supervision, you will certainly succeed one day.
Doubt | Principles |
Good advice may be communicated, but not good manners.
Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman
The fact that no two major countries have done to war since they both got McDonald’s is partly due to economic integration, but it is also due to the presence of American power and America’s willingness to use that power against those who would threaten the system of globalization–from Iraq to North Korea. The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist.[...] McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the US Air Force F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies to flourish is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. And these fighting forces and institutions are paid for by American taxpayer dollars.
Age | Important | Influence | Parents | Principles | Thinking | Time | Woman | Teacher |
Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself.
Action | Justice | Life | Life | Object | Peace | Principles | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Will | World |
An honest man will never employ an equivocal expression; a confused man may often utter ambiguous ones without any design.
Principles | Religion | Strength | Will |
God himself has no right to be a tyrant.
Accident | Argument | Boldness | Censure | Deliberation | Earth | Excellence | Force | Man | Morality | Ostentation | Principles | Property | Purpose | Purpose | Rest | Right | Sense | Will | Excellence | Deliberation |
The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.
Conduct | Duty | Individual | Man | Nothing | Principles | Right |
William Melmoth, wrote under pseudonym Sir Thomas Fitzosborne
Epicurus, we are told, left behind him three hundred volumes of his own works, wherein he had not inserted a single quotation; and we have it upon the authority of Varro’s own words that he himself composed four hundred and ninety books. Seneca assures us that Didymus the grammarian wrote no less than four thousand; but Origen, it seems, was yet more prolific, and extended his performances even to six thousand treatises. It is obvious to imagine with what sort of materials the productions of such expeditious workmen were wrought up: sound thoughts and well-matured reflections could have no share, we may be sure, in these hasty performances. Thus are books multiplied, whilst authors are scarce; and so much easier is it to write than to think! But shall I not myself, Palamedes, prove an instance that it is so, if I suspend any longer your own more important reflections by interrupting you with such as mine?
Absurd | Birth | Circumstances | Gloom | Hypothesis | Light | Observation | Opinion | Principles | World |