This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through a long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.
Chastity | Discretion | Fidelity | Instinct | Nobility | Skepticism | Surrender | Youth |
There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
Laurence J. Peter, fully Laurence Johnston Peter
Real, constructive mental power lies in the creative thought that shapes your destiny, and your hour-by-hour mental conduct produces power for change in your life. Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that train of thought is going.
Change | Conduct | Destiny | Life | Life | Nobility | Power | Thought | Happiness | Thought |
Many a time I have made a comparison between nobility of sacrifice and happiness of rebellion to find out which one is nobler and more beautiful; but until now I have distilled only one truth out of the whole matter, and this truth is sincerity, which makes all our deeds beautiful and honorable.
Deeds | Nobility | Rebellion | Sacrifice | Sincerity | Time | Truth | Deeds | Happiness |
Whoever would be a teacher of men let him begin by teaching himself before teaching others; and let him teach by example before teaching by word. For he who teaches himself and rectifies his own ways is more deserving of respect and reverence than he who would teach others and rectify their ways.
Example | Men | Respect | Reverence | Teach | Respect | Teacher |
Sentiment and nobility and love are immortal... Tenderness and loyalty, and patience, and self-sacrifice, and devotion to duty - these are life’s natural aspirations.
Devotion | Duty | Life | Life | Love | Loyalty | Loyalty | Nobility | Patience | Sacrifice | Self | Self-sacrifice | Sentiment | Tenderness |
Pythagoras, aka Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras the Samian NULL
Let a man use great reverence and manners to himself.
Pythagoras, aka Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras the Samian NULL
Above all things reverence thy Self. [Respect yourself above all.]
All nobility in its beginnings was somebody’s natural superiority.
Nobility | Superiority |
I should not say that where fear is there is also reverence… but where reverence is, there is fear.
William Temple, fully Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet
One great gain that the scientific use of the comparative method of religion has brought us is the duty of genuine reverence for other men’s beliefs... Whatever thoughts any human soul is seeking to live by, deserve the reverence of every other human soul.
Stephen Covey, fully Stephen Richards Covey
Creating the unity to run an effective business or a family or a marriage requires great personal strength and courage. No amount of technical administrative skill in laboring for the masses can make up for lack of nobility of personal character in developing relationships. It is a t a very essential, one-on-one level, that we live the primary laws of love and life.
Business | Character | Courage | Family | Life | Life | Love | Marriage | Nobility | Skill | Strength | Unity | Business |
We need harmony, we need peace. Peace is based on respect for life, the spirit of reverence for life. Not only do we have to respect the lives of human beings, but we have to respect the lives of animals, vegetables, and minerals. Rocks can be alive. A rock can be destroyed. The earth also. The destruction of our health by pollution of the air and water is linked to the destruction of the minerals. The way we farm, the way we deal with our garbage, all these things are related to each other.
Earth | Harmony | Health | Life | Life | Need | Peace | Respect | Reverence | Spirit | Respect |
Taste, if it mean anything but a paltry connoisseurship, must mean a general susceptibility to truth and nobleness, a sense to discern, and a heart to love and reverence all beauty, order, goodness, wheresoever, or in whatsoever forms and accompaniments, they are to be seen. This surely implies as its chief condition, a finely-gifted mind, purified into harmony with itself, into keenness and justness of vision; above all, kindled into love and generous admiration.
Admiration | Beauty | Harmony | Heart | Love | Mind | Order | Reverence | Sense | Taste | Truth | Vision |