This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The first question to be answered by any individual or any social group, facing a hazardous situation, is whether the crisis is to be met as a challenge to strength or as an occasion for despair.
Challenge | Individual | Question | Strength | Crisis |
What we hope for at the School of Dreams is the strength both to deal and to receive the axe's blow, to look straight at the face of God, which is none other than my own face, but seen naked, the face of my soul. The face of "God" is the unveiling, the staggering vision fo the construction we are, the tiny and great lies, the small nontruths we must have incessantly woven to be able to prepare our brothers' dinner and cook for our children. An unveiling that only happens by surprise, by accident, and with a brutality that shatters: under the blow of truth, the eggshell we are breaks. Right in the middle of life's path: the apocalypse; we lose a life.
Brutality | Dreams | Hope | Receive | Right | Strength | Vision |
Henry Miller, aka Henry Valentine Miller
True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.
Strength | Submission |
Indira Gandhi, fully Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī
A nation's strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.
Strength |
Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller
The idea of brotherhood redawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed; and thinkers of great soul like Lessing challenge the world to say which is more godlike, the hatred and tooth-and-nail grapple of conflicting religions, or sweet accord and mutual helpfulness. Ancient prejudice of man against his brother-man wavers and retreats before the radiance of a more generous sentiment, which will not sacrifice men to forms, or rob them of the comfort and strength they find in their own beliefs. The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations.
Age | Association | Brotherhood | Challenge | Comfort | Man | Men | Prejudice | Sacrifice | Sentiment | Soul | Strength | Thinkers | Will | World | Association |
Remember, the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability.
Good | Opportunity | Strength |
J. R. Miller, fully James Russell Miller
A true home is one of the most sacred of places. It is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world’s perils and alarms. It is a resting-place to which at close of day the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow. It is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into discipline and strength, where character is molded.
Battle | Character | Day | Discipline | Life | Life | Love | Men | Sacred | Strength |
All the strength and force of man comes from his faith in things unseen. He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.
Convictions | Faith | Force | Man | Strength |
The strongest is never strong enough always to be master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.
Jean Paul, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, aka Jean Paul Richter
The more weakness the more falsehood; strength goes straight; every cannon-ball that has in its hollows and holes goes crooked. Weaklings must lie.
Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
Battle | Charity | Enough | Faith | Good | Grace | Health | Hope | Love | Patience | Strength | Work |
Jimmy Carter, fully James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr.
Great American power and responsibility are not unprecedented, and have been used with restraint and great benefit in the past. We have not assumed that super strength guarantees super wisdom, and we have consistently reached out to the international community to ensure that our own power and influence are tempered by the best common judgment. Within our country, ultimate decisions are made through democratic means, which tend to moderate radical or ill-advised proposals. Constrained and inspired by historic constitutional principles, our nation has endeavored for more than two hundred years to follow the now almost universal ideals of freedom, human rights, and justice for all.
Ideals | Influence | Justice | Power | Responsibility | Restraint | Strength |
People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain
Destroy | Evil | Experience | Feelings | Love | Pain | People | Right | Society | Strength | Society | Afraid |
In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of effort is the measure of the results.
One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
People | Self-confidence | Strength | Work |
Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
Thus grave these lessons on thy soul, hope, faith, and love; and thou shalt find strength when life's surges rudest roll, light when thou else wert blind.
John Cheever, fully John William Cheever
Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.
Joan Halifax, fully Roshi Joan Jiko Halifax
All too often our so-called strength comes from fear, not love; instead of having a strong back, many of us have a defended front shielding a weak spine. In other words, we walk around brittle and defensive, trying to conceal our lack of confidence. If we strengthen our backs, metaphorically speaking, and develop a spine that’s flexible but sturdy, then we can risk having a front that’s soft and open, representing choiceless compassion. The place in your body where these two meet — strong back and soft front — is the brave, tender ground in which to root our caring deeply when we begin the process of being with dying.