This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Dan Millman, born Daniel Jay Millman
Rest your mind in the eternal present, but open your eyes to the highest possibilities of your life path. Trust the process of your life, keep your sense of humor, and, above all, remember that is never too late to experience the life you were born to live.
Eternal | Experience | Humor | Life | Life | Mind | Present | Rest | Sense | Trust |
Dennis Genpo Merzel, aka Genpo Merzel Roshi
To begin with, it is just One Mind, all One; then we generate all the boundaries and definitions. As soon as we define ourselves in relation to another we feel more comfortable, because now we know how to be and to act. To go into a situation completely ignorant of our role is very scary. We really have to trust ourselves then. But how can we trust if we do not know who we are? So we fall back on some definition of ourselves and put our trust in that... We lose our identity when we lose our definition. We do not realize it, but that is a wonderful, extraordinary happening, because for a time we are free of our boundaries. For a moment we are nobody, but that is just too frightening. So in order to grab on to some definition, a false sense of security and comfort, what do we do right away? We get into another relationship. At least in relationship, even if it is not working for us, we know who we are.
Comfort | Mind | Order | Relationship | Right | Security | Sense | Time | Trust |
There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.
Intelligence | Sense |
Dennis Genpo Merzel, aka Genpo Merzel Roshi
A known quantity, even a false sense of security, is more comfortable than facing the truth of our insecurity.
Insecurity | Security | Sense | Truth |
Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.
Enthusiasm | Persistence | Sense | Success |
The number-one thing young people in American - indeed, young people around the world - have going for them is their sense of honesty, morality, and ethics. Young people refuse to accept the lies and rationalizations of the established order.
Ethics | Honesty | Morality | Order | People | Sense | World |
Dante, full name Durante degli Alighieri, aka Dante Alighieri NULL
World government is necessary for the world... World government must be understood in the sense that it governs mankind on the basis of what all have in common and that by a common law it leads all toward peace.
Government | Law | Mankind | Peace | Sense | World | Government |
Pity is a sense of our own misfortunes in those of another man; it is a sort of foresight of the disasters which may befall ourselves. We assist others, in order that they may assist us on like occasions; so that the services we offer to the unfortunate are in reality so many anticipated kindnesses to ourselves.
Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow.
Courage | Danger | Fear | Good | Injustice | Injustice | Life | Life | Misfortune | Nothing | Power | Sense | Tomorrow | Understanding |
The sense of inferiority inherent in the act of imitation breeds resentment. The impulse of the imitators is to overcome the model they imitate.
Imitation | Impulse | Inferiority | Model | Resentment | Sense |
The poor on the border line of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility.
Rely on principles; walk erect and free, not trusting to bulk of body, like a wrestler, for one should not be unconquerable in the sense that an ass is. Who then is unconquerable? He whom the inevitable cannot overcome.
Body | Inevitable | Principles | Sense |
Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man’s spirit than when we win his heart. For we can win a man’s heart one day and lose it the next. But when we break a proud spirit, we achieve something that is final and absolute.
Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity.
Good | Integrity | Intelligence | Sense | Taste |
Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aka FDR
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
Common Sense | Method | Mistake | Sense | Temper |