This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Meister Eckhart, formally Meister von Hochheim
This passage from nothingness to real being, this quitting of oneself is a birth accompanied by pain, for by it natural love is excluded. All grief except grief for sin comes from love of the world. In God is neither sorrow, nor grief, nor trouble. Wouldst thou be free from all grief and trouble, abide and walk in God, and to God alone. As long as love of the creature is in us, pain cannot cease.
Metastasio, aka Pietro Petastasio, pseudonymn for Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi NULL
High birth is an accident, not a virtue.
Birth |
Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
The Avatar appears in different forms, under different names, at different times, in different parts of the world. As his appearance always coincides with the spiritual birth of man, so the period immediately preceding his manifestation is always one in which humanity suffers from the pangs of the approaching birth.
Appearance | Birth | Humanity |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
The birth of all things is weak and tender; and therefore we should have our eyes intent on beginnings.
Birth |
There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than “politicians” think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas (and because it constantly produces them) that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.
Birth | Books | Earth | Events | Ideas | Rule | Teach | World |
Mikhail Gorbachev, fully Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it.
Birth | Journey | Little | Need | People | Power | Religion |
Mitch Albom, fully Mitchell David "Mitch" Albom
You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on the earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole. It is why we are drawn to babies, and to funerals.
Milarepa, fully Jetsun Milarepa NULL
May I be far removed from contending creeds and dogmas. Ever since my Lord's grace entered my mind, My mind has never strayed to seek such distractions. Accustomed long to contemplating love and compassion, I have forgotten all difference between myself and others. Accustomed long to meditating on my Guru as enhaloed over my head, I have forgotten all those who rule by power and prestige. Accustomed long to meditating on my guardian deities as inseparable from myself, I have forgotten the lowly fleshly form. Accustomed long to meditating on the secret whispered truths, I have forgotten all that is said in written or printed books. Accustomed, as I have been, to the study of the eternal Truth, I've lost all knowledge of ignorance. Accustomed, as I've been, to contemplating both nirvana and samsara as inherent in myself, I have forgotten to think of hope and fear. Accustomed, as I've been, to meditating on this life and the next as one, I have forgotten the dread of birth and death. Accustomed long to studying, by myself, my own experiences, I have forgotten the need to seek the opinions of friends and brethren. Accustomed long to applying each new experience to my own spiritual growth, I have forgotten all creeds and dogmas. Accustomed long to meditating on the Unborn, the Indestructible, the Unchanging, I have forgotten all definitions of this or that particular goal. Accustomed long to meditating on all visible phenomena as the Dharmakaya, I have forgotten all meditations on what is produced by the mind. Accustomed long to keeping my mind in the uncreated state of freedom, I have forgotten all conventions and artificialities. Accustomed long to humbleness, of body and mind, I have forgotten the pride and haughty manner of the mighty. Accustomed long to regarding my fleshly body as my hermitage, I have forgotten the ease and comfort of retreats and monasteries. Accustomed long to knowing the meaning of the Wordless, I have forgotten the way to trace the roots of verbs, and the sources of words and phrases. You, 0 learned one, may trace out these things in your books [if you wish].
Birth | Body | Comfort | Dread | Eternal | Experience | Grace | Hope | Knowing | Knowledge | Life | Life | Love | Meaning | Mind | Need | Phenomena | Power | Pride | Rule | Study | Words | Friends | Think |
Mikhail Bakunin, fully Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin
This explains why, since the birth of the State, the world of politics has always been and continues to be the stage for unlimited rascality and brigandage, brigandage and rascality which, by the way, are held in high esteem, since they are sanctified by patriotism, by the transcendent morality and the supreme interest of the State. This explains why the entire history of ancient and modern states is merely a series of revolting crimes; why kings and ministers, past and present, of all times and all countries — statesmen, diplomats, bureaucrats, and warriors — if judged from the standpoint of simple morality and human justice, have a hundred, a thousand times over earned their sentence to hard labour or to the gallows. There is no horror, no cruelty, sacrilege, or perjury, no imposture, no infamous transaction, no cynical robbery, no bold plunder or shabby betrayal that has not been or is not daily being perpetrated by the representatives of the states, under no other pretext than those elastic words, so convenient and yet so terrible: "for reasons of state.
Betrayal | Birth | History | Morality | Past | Politics | World |
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
Life and death are but phases of the same thing, the reverse and obverse of the same coin... I want you all to treasure death and suffering more than life and to appreciate their cleansing and purifying character. Death which is an Eternal verity is revolution, as birth and after is slow and steady evolution. Death is as necessary for man's growth as life itself... All fear is a sign of want of faith... Hate the sin and love the sinner.
Birth | Death | Eternal | Fear | Growth | Hate | Life | Life | Love | Sin | Suffering |
He who gives himself to justice and peace, he who recognizes that life is too short for men to be little, he who honors life as the medium for that which is abiding and permanent, will not fritter it away on that which is shallow and petty. . . This is the balanced attitude: Not to try to escape life or to underestimate it; not to see it only as an insignificant moment between birth and death, but also, in recognizing its brevity, to cherish the opportunity it gives us for producing that which is eternal.
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
No religion which is narrow and which cannot satisfy the test of reason, will survive the coming reconstruction of society in which the values will have changed and character, not possession of wealth, title or birth will be the test of merit.
Those who practice the Art of Peace must protect the domain of Mother Nature, the divine reflection of creation, and keep it lovely and fresh. Warriorship gives birth to natural beauty. The subtle techniques of a warrior arise as naturally as the appearance of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Warriorship is none other than the vitality that sustains all life.
Appearance | Art | Birth | Mother | Peace | Practice | Reflection | Art |
Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward
Every person has the need to be touched and to be recognized by other people, and every person has the need to do something with the time between birth and death. These are biological and psycho- logical needs that Berne calls "hungers."
Bawa Mahaiyadden, fully Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
My precious children, please bear with me when I plead with you, you who are like those whom I have given birth to, born of me, to such of you, I gift this Knowledge of Truth, which is, that your belief, that Trust in the Almighty, is your Power and your Strength, your Purity and the Perfection of your Soul. These will determine the destiny of your Soul and ensure the victory of your existence, victory of Perfection and Purity, the victory of Unity, when you attain that conviction that all other lives are like your own life.
Birth | Destiny | Knowledge | Perfection | Power | Purity | Soul | Trust | Will |
N. Scott Momaday, fully Navarre Scott Momaday
In my lifetime, I have seen changes in the Indian world that are nearly unimaginable. At the turn of the 20th century, the Indian was literally headed for extinction. The death rate exceeded the birth rate, poverty and disease were pervasive, the prospects for survival--let alone a better life--were bleak. At the turn of the century, the Indian has not only survived , indeed he--and she--has become a viable, even necessary, factor in the life of the nation and of the world.
Better | Birth | Death | Disease | Life | Life | Poverty | World |
Nelson Mandela, fully Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all.