This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Chain reaction is popularly associated with the atomic bomb, but it is no less gigantic a force in your daily life. Every word you speak, every action you perform sets up a chain of reaction that can end in a damaging explosion or a shower of blessings.
Action | Atomic bomb | Blessings | Force | Life | Life | Wisdom |
W. Brugh Joy, fully William Brugh Joy
Let life teach you what spirit it... By conforming to spiritual ideals imposed from the outside through the force of tradition, people often channel themselves into models of behavior that violate their inner essence. We are all guaranteed realization when we strip away our pre-conceived notions about spiritual perfection, give up striving form some idealized end-point called 'enlightenment,' and discover the magnificence of what we already are and live that fully.
Behavior | Enlightenment | Force | Ideals | Life | Life | People | Perfection | Spirit | Teach | Tradition | Wisdom |
John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy
We live in a hemisphere whose own revolution has given birth to the most powerful force of the modern age - the search for the freedom and self-fulfillment of man.
Age | Birth | Force | Freedom | Fulfillment | Man | Revolution | Search | Self | Wisdom |
Louis Kossuth, also Lajos Kossuth, fully Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva
I consider that it is on instruction and education that the future security and direction of the destiny of every nation chiefly and fundamentally rests.
Destiny | Education | Future | Security | Wisdom | Instruction |
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.
Authority | Church | Conscience | Critic | Will | Wisdom | Zeal |
R. D. Laing, fully Ronald David Laing
Violence attempts to constrain the other's freedom, to force him to act in the way we desire, but with ultimate lack of concern, with indifference to the other's own existence or destiny.
Desire | Destiny | Existence | Force | Freedom | Indifference | Wisdom |
The opening of the first grammar-school was the opening of the first trench against monopoly in Church and State.
There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.
Earth | Opportunity | Security | Wisdom |
George T. Lucas, fully George Walton Lucas, Jr.
Life cannot be explained. The only reason for life is life. There is no why. We are. Life is beyond reason. One might think of life as a large organism, and we are but a small, symbiotic part of it. It is possible that on a spiritual level we are all connected in a way that continues beyond the comings and goings of various life forms. My best guess is that we share a collective spirit or life force or consciousness that encompasses and goes beyond individual life forms.
Consciousness | Force | Individual | Life | Life | Reason | Spirit | Wisdom | Think |
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, aka "Pat"
Liberty and Equality are the twin ideals of American democracy. But they are not the same thing... Many person who would gladly die for liberty are appalled by equality. Many who are devoted to equality are puzzled and even troubled by liberty. Much of the political history of the American nation can be seen as a competition between these two ideals.
Competition | Democracy | Equality | History | Ideals | Liberty | Wisdom |
Baron de Montesquieu, fully Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
The principle of democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is extinct, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality, and when each citizen would fain to be upon a level with those whom he has chosen to command him. Then the people, incapable of bearing the very power they have delegated, want to manage everything themselves, to debate for the senate, to execute for the magistrate, and to decide for the judges.
Democracy | Equality | Extreme | People | Power | Spirit | Wisdom |
The church of tomorrow must be universal. It cannot belong to a particular class, race or nation, but must transcend all such barriers so the brotherhood of man may be extended among us.
Abuse resembles a church procession; it always returns to the point from which it set out.