This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
The moment of near despair is quite often the moment that precedes courage rather than resignation. In a sense, with the back to the wall and no exit but death or acceptance, the options narrow to one.
Acceptance | Courage | Death | Despair | Resignation | Sense |
A bold policy to reduce the addiction to oil would be the most powerful weapon to win the epic struggle against terrorism. In the short term, this means saving energy through more efficient technologies, necessary anyway to slow the greenhouse effect and global warming.
Addiction | Energy | Global | Means | Policy | Struggle | Terrorism |
The allure of eternal life has been tugging at the human imagination since we first began to contemplate our finitude.
Eternal | Imagination | Life | Life |
Sins become more subtle as you grow older; you commit sins of despair rather than lust.
Every moment of fulfillment or consummation symbolically defeats the idea of death. It is as if our experience proclaimed to the world: "Though I will die, at least I have achieved this much." Through deeds that are humane, artistic, or merely nurturing, the imagination propels us into a time when we will no longer be, but whatever we care about will survive and possibly prevail. We know we will die, but we deploy our energies toward possible occurrences that project themselves through life as if it continues in the future.
Care | Death | Deeds | Experience | Fulfillment | Future | Imagination | Life | Life | Time | Will | World | Deeds |
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
Prayer is not only worship; it is also an invisible emanation of man’s worshipping spirit - the most powerful form of energy that one can generate. The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrable as that of secreting glands. It results can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy, greater intellectual vigor, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human relationships. If you make a habit of sincere prayer, your life will be very noticeably and profoundly altered.
Body | Energy | Habit | Influence | Life | Life | Man | Mind | Prayer | Spirit | Understanding | Will | Worship |
Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination.
Imagination | Knowledge |
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.
Apathy | Enthusiasm | Imagination | Plan | Practice |
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.
Apathy | Enthusiasm | Imagination | Plan | Practice |
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
No conjunction can possibly occur, however fearful, however tremendous it may appear, from which a man by his own energy may not extricate himself.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
That youthful fervor, which is sometimes called enthusiasm, but which is a heat of imagination subsequently discovered to be inconsistent with the experience of actual life.
Enthusiasm | Experience | Imagination | Life | Life |
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
From childhood upwards, everything is done to make the minds of men and women conventional and sterile. And if, by misadventure, some spark of imagination remains, its unfortunate possessor is considered unsound and dangerous, worthy only of contempt in time of peace and of prison or a traitor’s death in time of war.
Childhood | Contempt | Death | Imagination | Men | Peace | Prison | Time | Traitor | War |