This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Our merit gains us the esteem of the virtuous; our star, that of the public.
The extreme pleasure we take in talking of ourselves should make us fear that we give very little to those who listen to us.
It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.
Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.
The head does not know how to play the part of the heart for long.
Men | Unhappiness | Happiness |
We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.
Pleasure |
Now, good my lord, Let there be some more test made of my mettle Before so noble and so great a figure Be stamped upon it.
What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
Oh, how this spring of life resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, And, by and by, a cloud takes all away!
Oh, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful In the contempt and anger of his lip!
Oswald: Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. Kent: Fellow, I know thee. Oswald: What dost thou know me for? Kent: A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition. King Lear, Act ii, Scene 2
Sydney Smith playfully says that common sense was invented by Socrates, that philosopher having been one of its most conspicuous exemplars in conducting the contest of practical sagacity against stupid prejudice and illusory beliefs.
Generosity | Gluttony | Men | Taste | Happiness |
I am present in front of anyone who has faith in me, just as the moon casts its reflection, effortlessly, in any vessel filled with water.
Kautilya, aka Chanakya or Vishnu Gupta NULL
The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.
Peace | Tranquility | Happiness |
True wisdom, indeed, springs from the wide brain which is fed from the deep heart; and it is only when age warms its withering conceptions at the memory of its youthful fire, when it makes experience serve aspiration, and knowledge illumine the difficult paths through which thoughts thread their way into facts,--it is only then that age becomes broadly and nobly wise.
Comfort | Consolation | Insult | Knowing | Pleasure | World | Insult |