This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found: for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy… True happiness is found in unselfish love, a love which increases in proportion as it is shared.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
A prince… who wishes to guard against conspiracies should fear those on whom he has heaped benefits quite as much, and even more, than those whom he has wronged; for the latter lack the convenient opportunities which the former have in abundance. The intention of both is the same for the thirst of dominion is as great as that of revenge, and even greater. A prince, therefore, should never bestow so much authority upon his friends but that there should always be a certain distance between them and himself, and that there should always be something left for them to desire.
Abundance | Authority | Desire | Fear | Intention | Revenge | Wishes | Friends |
They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle, the root and record of their friendship. If absence be not death, neither is theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.
Absence | Comfort | Death | Kill | Love | Society | World | Friendship | Society | Friends |
Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can Spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their Friendship. If Absence be not Death, neither is it theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as Friends do the Seas; they live in one another still.
Mario Puzo, fully Mario Gianluigi Puzo
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
Friends |
In time of prosperity friends will be plenty. In times of adversity not one among twenty.
Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL
Flattery’s fire is hidden. Its sweet taste is apparent, but the smoke is bound to come out at last.
A new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively. The existing one is maintained by the Press, by propaganda, by organization, and by financial and other influences which are at its disposal. This unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness for new truth.
Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi
The aggressiveness of governments grows in proportion to the increase of their internal despotism.
Forget your enemies. It's your friends you frustrate that cause all the problems.
In direct proportion as a man recognizes himself as spirit, and lives accordingly, is he able to transcend in power the man who recognizes himself merely as material.