This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men, shall we be able to speak of mankind as civilized.
We have failed to grasp the fact that mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a unit to fight against itself is suicide.
Albert Flanders, Albert I, born Albert Leopold Clément Marie Meinrad
Sometimes only a change of viewpoint is needed to convert a tiresome duty into an interesting opportunity.
Change | Duty | Opportunity | Wisdom |
Tracing the progress of mankind in the ascending path of civilization, and moral and intellectual culture, our fathers found that the divine ordinance of government, in every stage of ascent, was adjustable on principles of the common reason to the actual condition of a people, and always had for its objects, in the benevolent councils of the divine wisdom, the happiness, the expansion, the security, the elevation of society, and the redemption of man. They sought in vain for any title of authority of man over man, except of superior capacity and higher morality.
Authority | Capacity | Civilization | Culture | Government | Man | Mankind | Morality | People | Principles | Progress | Reason | Redemption | Security | Society | Title | Wisdom |
The ideal social state is not that in which each gets an equal amount of wealth, but in which each gets in proportion to his contribution to the general stock.
Martha Gellhorn, fully Martha Ellis Gellhorn
I hold the relay race theory of history: progress in human affairs depends upon accepting, generation after generation, the individual duty to oppose the evils of the time.
Duty | History | Individual | Progress | Race | Time | Wisdom |
Virginia Gildersleeve, fully Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve
The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community - these are the most vital things education must try to produce.
Ability | Education | Future | Knowledge | Past | Service | Skill | Vision | Wisdom | Think |
Margaret Fuller, fully Sara Margaret Fuller, Marchese Ossoli
Only the dreamer shall understand realities, though in truth his dreaming must be not out of proportion to his waking.
Truth | Wisdom | Understand |
Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud
It is easy enough to endow the Matterhorn with another and less exalted meaning. The scale of 1:50,000 may be roughly the proportion in which fate fulfills our wishes, and in which we ourselves carry out our good intentions.
He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.
Absurd | Good | Influence | Insult | Mankind | Nothing | Pleasure | Wisdom | Wishes | Insult |
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a.k.a. Charlotte Anna (nee Perkins), Charlotte Perkins Stetson
The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society - more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.