This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Nikolai Berdyaev, fully Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev, also spelled Nichlas Berdiaev
Conscience is the spiritual, supernatural principle in man, and it is not of social origin at all. It is rather the perversion and confusion of conscience that is of social origin.
Conscience | Man |
Those who misrepresent the normal experiences of life, who decry being controversial, who shun risk, are the enemies of the American way of life, whatever the piety of the vocal professions and the patriotic flavor of their platitudes.
William Barrett, fully William Christopher Barrett
The decline of religion in modern times means simply that religion is no longer the uncontested center and ruler of man’s life., and that the church is no longer the final and unquestioned home and asylum of his being.
Yehiel Mikhal of Zlotchov, also Yechiel Michel M'Drohobitch Maggid of Zlotchov
Pray for your enemies that everything may be well with them. More than all others prayers, this is truly the service of God.
Cato the Younger, formally Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis NULL
Some men are better served by their bitter-tongued enemies than by their sweet-smiling friends; because the former often tell the truth, the latter, never.
If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.
Government | Society | Society | Government |
People are driven from the church not so much by stern truth that makes them uneasy, as by weak nothings that make them contemptuous.
Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather
The Miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.
Friendship being incompatible with truth, only the mute dialogue with our enemies is fruitful.
Truth |
The chromosome reproduces itself exactly and exactly once, building itself up from materials around it, mostly proteins. Nothing similar has been known to occur outside living matter, though regarded chemically, the DNA molecule is not fundamentally different from any other large molecule. Clearly then, some other principle prevails in living nature… Consider the DNA molecule… the main constituent of the chromosomes, with its 10,000 links, in which four different types occur in various arrangements… and assuming 32 links of the chain contain 8 of each type we get for the odds of a particular arrangement 1:1017 That is, one to a hundred thousand billion… the inevitable conclusion sis that whatever evolution may depend on, it certainly does not depend on chance.
Chance | Evolution | Inevitable | Nature | Nothing |
Is there any doctrine of immortality that can say anything more simple yet definitive about man’s fate after death? He has come from God and returns to God. From the very beginning, man is bound up with God; and this bond continues to exist, unaffected by death which befalls the body only. God’s creation of man’s spirit, then, must be understood as a principle whose consequence is immortality.
Beginning | Body | Death | Doctrine | Fate | God | Immortality | Man | Spirit | Fate | God |
The fundamental principle of revolutionary wars: strike to win; strike only when success is certain; if not, then don’t strike.
Success |
Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America NULL
The principle of competition appears to be nothing more than a partially conventionalized embodiment of primeval selfishness... the supremacy of the motive of self-interest... The Christian conscience can be satisfied with nothing less than the complete substitution of motives of mutual helpfulness and goodwill for the motive of private gain.
Competition | Conscience | Helpfulness | Motives | Nothing | Self | Self-interest | Selfishness |
Georges Florovsky, fully Georges Vasilievich Florovsky
Tradition is the witness of the Spirit; the Spirit’s unceasing revelation and preaching of good tidings… It is, primarily, the principle of growth and regeneration.