This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.
Good temper is the most contented, the most comfortable state of the soul; the greatest happiness both for those who possess it, and for those who feel its influence. With "gentleness" in his own character, "comfort" in his house, and "good temper" in his wife, the earthly felicity of man is complete... Bad temper is its own scourge. Few things are more bitter than to feel bitter. A man's venom poisons himself more than his victim.
Character | Comfort | Gentleness | Good | Influence | Man | Soul | Temper | Wife | Happiness |
Anguish of mind has driven thousands to suicide; anguish of body, none. This proves that the health of the mind is of far more consequence to our happiness than the health of the body, although both are deserving of much more attention than either receives.
If sensuality be our only happiness, we ought to envy the brutes; for instinct is a surer, shorter, safer guide to such happiness than reason.
Envy | Instinct | Reason | Sensuality | Happiness |
He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness; and he that is warned by the folly of others has perhaps attained the soundest wisdom.
Charles Dickens, fully Charles John Huffam Dickens
It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature, that, when the heart is touched and softened by some tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. It would seem almost as though our better thoughts and sympathies were charms, in virtue of which the soul is enabled to hold some vague and mysterious intercourse with the spirits of those whom we loved in life. Alas! how often and how long may these patient angels hover around us, watching for the spell which is so soon forgotten!
Angels | Better | Heart | Life | Life | Memory | Nature | Soul | Virtue | Virtue | Happiness |
Talk not of your personal success to one who has failed; forget not your failures in the moment of success.
Success |
In death, there are no rulers above and no subjects below. The course of the four seasons is unknown; our life is eternal. Even a king among men can experience no greater happiness than is ours… If I could restore your body to you, renew your bones and your flesh and take you back to your parents, your wife, and children and old friends, would you not gladly accept my offers?… Why should I throw away a happiness greater than a king’s to once again thrust myself into the troubles and anxieties of mankind?
Body | Children | Death | Eternal | Experience | Life | Life | Mankind | Men | Parents | Troubles | Wife | Happiness | Old |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
The superior man makes the difficulty to be over come his first interest; success comes only later.
Difficulty | Man | Success |
The happiness of ordinary persons seems to me to consist in slavishly following the majority, as if they could not help it.
My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it.
The rulers of old set off all success to the credit of their people, attributing all failure to themselves.
When I look at what the world does and where people nowadays believe they can find happiness, I am not sure that that is true happiness. The happiness of these ordinary people seems to consist in slavishly imitating the majority, as if this were their only choice. And yet they all believe they are happy. I cannot decide whether that is happiness or not. Is there such a thing as happiness?
Claude Montefiore, fully Claude Joseph Goldsmid "C.G." Montefiore
The best way to attain happiness is not to seek it.
Perfect happiness is the absence of happiness; perfect glory is the absence of glory.