This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
To the man who studies to gain a thorough insight into science, books and study are merely the steps of the ladder by which he climbs to the summit; as soon as a step has been advanced he leaves it behind. The majority of mankind, however, who study to fill their memory with facts do not use the steps of the ladder to mount upward, but take them off and lay them on their shoulders in order that they may take them along, delighting in the weight of the burden they are carrying. They ever remain below because they carry what should carry them.
Books | Insight | Majority | Man | Mankind | Memory | Order | Science | Study |
To know how to refuse is as important as to know how to consent. A gilded No gives more satisfaction than a dry Yes.
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
To teach how to live with uncertainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can still do for those who study it.
Age | Philosophy | Study | Teach | Uncertainty |
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
To teach how to live with uncertainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can still do for those who study it.
Age | Philosophy | Study | Teach | Uncertainty |
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books.
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
Study without reflection is a waste of time; reflection without study is dangerous.
Reflection | Study | Time | Waste |
Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest steppingstones to success. No other element can do so much for a man if he is willing to study them and make capital out of them. Look backward. Can't you see where your failures have helped you?
A man who finds no satisfaction I himself seeks for it in vain elsewhere.
Man |
To understand the world is wise than to condemn it. To study the world is better than to shun it. To use the world is nobler than to abuse it. To make the world better, lovelier, and happier, is the noblest work of man or woman... He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
Abuse | Better | Man | Study | Wise | Woman | Work | World | Understand |
One wonders whether a generation that demands satisfaction of all its needs and instant solutions of the world's problems will produce anything of lasting value. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive - it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men.
The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater our desire to be like others.
Desire |
François Guizot, fully François Pierre Guillaume Guizot
Prayer is more the mere outburst of the desires or sorrows of the soul, seeking that satisfaction or consolation which it does not find within itself. It is the expression of a faith, instinctive or reflective, obscure or clear, wavering or steadfast, in the existence, the presence, the power and the sympathy of the Being to whom prayer is addressed.
Consolation | Existence | Faith | Power | Prayer | Soul | Sympathy | Wavering |
François Guizot, fully François Pierre Guillaume Guizot
The study of art is a taste at once engrossing and unselfish, which may be indulged without effort, and yet has the power of exciting the deepest emotions - a taste able to exercise and to gratify both the nobler and softer parts of our nature.
Art | Effort | Emotions | Nature | Power | Study | Taste | Art |
George Berkeley, also Bishop Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne
Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men.
Evidence | Knowledge | Men | Mind | Nothing | Philosophy | Reason | Serenity | Study | Time | Truth | Wisdom |
Georg Hegel, fully Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Passions, private aims, and the satisfaction of selfish desires, are… most effective springs of action. Their power lies in the fact that they would respect none of the limitations which justice and morality would impose on them; and [they] have a more direct influence over man than the artificial and tedious discipline that tends to order and self-restraint, law and morality.
Action | Aims | Discipline | Influence | Justice | Law | Man | Morality | Order | Power | Respect | Restraint | Self | Respect |
As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.