This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
We want to live our lives as wise warriors and die as men. We may not even know what it is until the moments of our deaths. Then, the questions come. Have we worked to release another soul from pain? Have we opened a way that was once closed? Have we learned from the steeps and dips? Then we can rest assured that we have lived as men and died as warriors.
A man should never be assumed foolish till he has proved himself foolish - this we owe him. A man should never be assumed wise till he has proved himself wise - this we owe to ourselves.
Pliny the Elder, full name Casus Plinius Secundus NULL
No one is wise at all times.
Silence is the highest wisdom of a fool as speech is the greatest trial of a wise man. If thou wouldst be known as wise, let thy words show thee so; if thou doubt thy words, let thy silence feign thee so. It is not a greater point of wisdom to discover knowledge than to hide ignorance.
Doubt | Ignorance | Knowledge | Man | Silence | Speech | Wisdom | Wise | Words | Trial |
Herbert Read, fully Sir Herbert Edward Read
Art is always the index of social vitality, the moving finger that records the destiny of a civilization. A wise statesman should keep an anxious eye on this graph, for it is more significant than a decline in exports or a fall in the value of a nation's currency.
Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
A childlike mind, in its simplicity, practices that science of good to which the wise may be blind.