This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
There is something greater and purer than what the mouth utters. Silence illuminates our souls, whispers to our hearts, and brings them together. Silence separates us from ourselves, makes us sail the firmament of spirit, and brings us closer to Heaven; it makes us feel that bodies are no more than prisons and that this world is only a place of exile.
Laurence J. Peter, fully Laurence Johnston Peter
If we lacked imagination enough to foresee something better, life would indeed be a tragedy.
Silence illuminates our souls, whispers to our hearts, and brings them together. Silence separates us from ourselves, makes us sail the firmament of spirit, and brings us closer to Heaven; it makes us feel that bodies are no more than prisons and that this world is only a place of exile.
Louis D. Brandeis, fully Louis Dembitz Brandeis
Lack of imagination causes cruelty.
Cruelty | Imagination |
Maimonides, given name Moses ben Maimon or Moshe ben Maimon, known as "Rambam" NULL
From the moment an offending scholar receives his punishment, he is your brother. And it is proper the punishment be administered privately, not to diminish his dignity.
Dignity | Punishment | Scholar |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
Let the punishment fit the offence.
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
Vicious habits are so great a stain to human nature, and so odious in themselves, that every person actuated by right reason would avoid them, though he were sure they; would be always concealed both from God and man, and had no future punishment entailed upon them.
Future | God | Human nature | Man | Nature | Punishment | Reason | Right | God |
Meister Eckhart, formally Meister von Hochheim
The soul that would experience this birth must detach herself from all outward things: within herself completely at one with herself... You must have an exalted mind an a burning heart in which, nevertheless, reign silence and stillness.
Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.
Punishment | Trial |
Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu NULL
The word “prayer” is applied to at least four distinct procedures - petition, intercession, adoration, contemplation. Petition is the asking of something for ourselves. Intercession is the asking of something for other people. Adoration is the use of intellect, feeling, will and imagination in making acts of devotion directed towards God in his personal aspect or as incarnated in human form. Contemplation is that condition of alert passivity, in which the soul lays itself open to the divine ground within and without, the immanent and transcendent Godhead.
Contemplation | Devotion | God | Imagination | People | Prayer | Soul | Will | God | Contemplation |
If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.
Imagination | People | Self | Self-interest | Understand |
Education tends to be diagrammatic and categorical, opening up no sluices in the human imagination of the wonder or beauty of their unique estate in the cosmos. Little wonder that it become so easy for our young to regard human hurt casually or to be uninspired by the magic of sensitivity.
Beauty | Education | Imagination | Little | Magic | Regard | Unique | Wonder | Beauty |
The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.
Punishment | Work |