This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.
Charity | Generosity | Order | Practice |
André Gide, fully André Paul Guillaume Gide
We call "happiness" a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible. But we call joy that state of mind and emotions that needs nothing to feel happy.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of man. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.
Circumstances | Man |
The mind of the greatest man on earth is not so independent of circumstances as not to feel inconvenienced by the merest buzzing noise about him; it does not need the report of a cannon to disturb his thoughts. The creaking of a vane or a pulley is quite enough. Do not wonder that he reasons ill just now; a fly is buzzing by his ear; it is quite enough to unfit him for giving good counsel.
Circumstances | Counsel | Earth | Enough | Giving | Good | Man | Mind | Need | Noise | Wonder |
Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.
Circumstances | Life | Life | Happiness |
Booker T. Washington, fully Booker Taliaferro Washington
It is an easy matter, requiring little thought, generosity or statesmanship to push a weak man down when he is struggling to get up. Anyone can do that. Greatness, generosity, statesmanship are shown in stimulating, encouraging every individual in the body politic to make of himself the most useful, intelligent and patriotic citizen possible.
Body | Generosity | Greatness | Individual | Little | Man | Statesmanship | Thought |
We should pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God; we should act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves.
Earnestness | Energy | God |
We should act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves; and we should pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God.
Earnestness | Energy | God |
There are circumstances of peculiar difficulty and danger, where a mediocrity of talent is the most fatal quality that a man can possibly possess. Had Charles the first, and Louis the Sixteenth, been more wise or more weak, more firm or more yielding, in either case they had both of them saved their heads.
Circumstances | Danger | Difficulty | Man | Mediocrity | Wise | Yielding | Talent |
Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things. Our blood is nearer and dearer to us than our money, and our life than our estate.
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.
Circumstances | Earnestness | Generosity | Kindness | Practice | Sincerity | Soul | Virtue | Virtue |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
Circumstances | Earnestness | Generosity | Kindness | Practice | Sincerity | Soul | Virtue | Virtue |
Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
It is the way we react to circumstances that determines our feelings.
The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself. It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice.
Avarice | Benevolence | Circumstances | Power | Property | Society | Virtue | Virtue | Weakness | Society |
The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the most to perpetuation of society itself. It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice. The possession of family wealth and of the distinction which attends hereditary possessions (as most concerned into it), are the natural securities for this transmission.
Avarice | Benevolence | Circumstances | Distinction | Family | Possessions | Power | Property | Society | Virtue | Virtue | Weakness | Wealth | Society |
Dwight Eisenhower, fully Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower
Decency - generosity - cooperation - assistance in trouble - devotion to duty; these are the things that are of greater value than surface appearances and custom.
Cooperation | Custom | Devotion | Duty | Generosity | Trouble | Value |
Are we only able to see who we actually are at life’s beginnings and endings? Do only extreme circumstances reveal ordinary truths? Are we otherwise blind to our genuine selves? This is the key lesson of life: to find our authentic selves, and to see the authenticity in others.
Authenticity | Circumstances | Extreme | Lesson | Life | Life |
The mind wants to believe that changing our circumstances will bring us peace. The mind thinks we’ve got to do something. But the reality is that we can relax in the circumstances as they are now, knowing that deep patience will bring deep peace and healing.
Circumstances | Knowing | Mind | Patience | Peace | Reality | Wants | Will |