This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
If we look back upon the usual course of our feelings, we shall find that we are more influenced by the frequent recurrence of objects than by their weight and importance; and that habit has more force in forming our habits than our opinions have. The mind naturally takes its tone and complexion from what it habitually contemplates.
I know it sounds strange, but it is true. In the difficult deaths dying patients grasp onto your hand - as if by sheer grip they could hold on to life. I try to tell them whatever I can, to comfort them and say it will be all right. But in the easy deaths it’s the other way around - the dying man or woman will reach out and take your hand. They are trying to comfort you.
Character | Comfort | Life | Life | Man | Right | Will | Woman |
All attempts to urge men forward, even in the right path, beyond the measure of their light, are impracticable; and unlawful, if they were practicable; augment their light, conciliate their affections, and they will follow of their own accord.
He who fears to venture as far as his heart urges and his reason permits, is a coward; he who ventures further than he intended to go, is a slave.
Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) and his brother Augustus William Hare
The only way of setting the will free is to deliver it from willfulness.
Kindness is the inability to remain at ease in the presence of another person who is ill at ease, the inability to remain comfortable in the presence of another who is uncomfortable, the ability to have peace of mind when one's neighbor is troubled.
Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland
The mind grows by what it feeds on.
He only is great at heart who floods the world with a great affection. He only is great of mind who stirs the world with great thoughts. He only is great of will who does something to shape the world to a great career. And he is greatest who does the most of all these things and does them best.
Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland
The heart is wiser than the intellect.
The religious instinct will never be replaced by law or even philanthropy.
Character | Instinct | Law | Philanthropy | Will |
I have found it helpful to keep constantly in mind that there are really two entries to be made for every transaction - one in terms of immediate dollars and cents, the other in terms of goodwill.