This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Moshe Chayim Luzzatto, also Moses Hayyim Luzzato, known by Hebrew acronym RaMCHal
It is the obligation of each person in Israel to raise up the Fallen Bride from the dust into which She has fallen.
Bride | Obligation |
The search of knowledge is an obligation laid on every Muslim.
Knowledge | Obligation | Search |
My religion recognizes no obligation to resolve doubt other than through rational means; and it commands no mere faith in eternal truths.
Doubt | Eternal | Faith | Obligation | Religion |
Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
The more you make yourselves humble and ask for forgiveness, the more your true exaltedness is seen. Humility is a sign of exaltedness. The preface of a spotlessly pure heart (Iman-Islam) is patience (sabur), contentment and gratitude (shakur), having trust in God (tawakkal), and praising Him for everything that happens to us, saying, “Al-hamdu lillah!” Therefore, without feeling shame, ask forgiveness whenever necessary. This will be good. Allah, the Lone One who rules and sustains (Allahu ta’ala Nayan), will protect you and me.
Contentment | Forgiveness | God | Gratitude | Heart | Humility | Patience | Trust | Will | Forgiveness | God |
Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.
I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.
Obligation | People | Thought | Thought |
The term "mensch" literally means a "person" or "man," but it represents a moral ideal for all people, men and women alike. . . . It means being sensitive to other people's needs and seeking out ways to help them. It is acquired by living close to family and extending one's sense of obligation beyond the family to the broader community. In the Jewish culture of Eastern Europe where the term arose, to call someone a mensch was the highest compliment that could be given.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
Baseness | Dread | Fear | Obligation | Opportunity | Punishment |
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
One can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit... Love is a bond of obligation that these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes.
Danger | Dread | Fear | Love | Obligation | Punishment | Danger |
Ouida, pseudonym of Maria Louise Ramé, preferred to be called Marie Louise de la Ramée NULL
This had been the higher, diviner way which she had missed, this obligation from the passion of the past which she had left unfulfilled, unaccepted.
Obligation | Passion | Past |
Ouida, pseudonym of Maria Louise Ramé, preferred to be called Marie Louise de la Ramée NULL
Now the misgiving arose in her whether she had mistaken arrogance for duty; whether, cleaving so closely to honor she had forgotten the obligation of mercy.
Arrogance | Honor | Misgiving | Obligation |
Patti Smith, fully Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith
These things were in my mind from the first moment I entered the vocal booth. The gratitude I had for rock and roll as it pulled me through a difficult adolescence. The joy I experienced when I danced. The moral power I gleaned in taking responsibility for one's action.
Gratitude | Joy | Mind | Power | Responsibility |
Should one break in and free the animals? That is illegal, but the obligation to obey the law is not absolute. It was justifiably broken by those who helped runaway slaves in the American South, to mention only one possible parallel.
Law | Obligation |
Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
A person however learned and qualified in his life's work in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character which makes personality fragrant.
Beauty | Character | Gratitude | Personality | Work | Beauty |
For however often a man may receive an obligation from you, if you refuse a request, all former favors are effaced by this one denial.
Man | Obligation | Receive |
Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, aka Saint John Paul the Great NULL
Man always travels along precipices. His truest obligation is to keep his balance.
Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, aka Saint John Paul the Great NULL
The obligation to earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace.
Obligation | Right | Society | Society |
Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, aka Saint John Paul the Great NULL
There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience... There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws [laws which seek to legitimate abortion and euthanasia]; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.
Conscience | Grave | Obligation |
Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, aka Saint John Paul the Great NULL
You are called to work and pray especially the weak and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn. Establishment of a new culture of life, the fruit of the culture of truth and of love. Everyone has an obligation to be at the service of life.
Culture | Obligation | Service | Truth | Work |
Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process.
Integrity | Obligation | Right |