This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed, but the same means must be approved by both.
Fortitude | Gold | Integrity | Prudence | Prudence | Value |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.
Remember, O my soul, what Christ said to the Pharisees, Luke 16:15, 'Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God.' Let this scare thee from seeking thyself. Consider, that seeking thy own glory is a dreadful and abominable thing. In that it is base treachery and cruelty to the souls of hearers, when a man seeks to please their fancy more than to gain their souls, to get people to approve him more than to get them to approve themselves to God. This is a soul-murdering way, and it is dear-bought applause that is won by the blood of souls. O my soul, beware of this. Let them call thee what they will; but seek thou God's glory and their good.
While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work Plato's Republic, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?
I looked for my soul but my soul I could not see. I looked for my God but my God eluded me. I looked for a friend and then I found all three.
Artifice | Children | Death | Earth | Experience | God | Light | Love | Man | Men | Patience | Price | Prosperity | Prudence | Prudence | Wife | Wisdom | God |
Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha
The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities — that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future — will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There’s a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Man never rises to great truths without enthusiasm.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
You will only offend men by praise which suggest the limits of their worth.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
You people suffer less from their faults (mistakes) than from the prudence of the old.
Consciousness | Prudence | Prudence |
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL
Magnanimity owes no account to prudence of its motives.