This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Few people know death, we only endure it, usually from determination, and even from stupidity and custom; and most men only die because they know not how to prevent dying.
Civility is but a desire to receive civility, and to be esteemed polite.
Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.
Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.
Desire |
The happiness and unhappiness of men depend as much on their turn of mind as on fortune.
Desire |
We easily forget our faults when they are known only to ourselves.
Desire |
We do not regret the loss of our friends by reasons of their merit, but because of our needs and for the good opinion that we believed them to have held of us.
The excessive pleasure we feel in talking of ourselves, ought to make us apprehensive that we afford little to our hearers.
Desire |
The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.
The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.
Praise |
The sort of liveliness which increases with age is not far distant from madness.
There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.
Desire |
We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives behind them.
There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.
Praise |
We should wish for few things with eagerness, if we perfectly knew the nature of that which was the object of our desire.
Desire |
The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.
Desire |
There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.
Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.
Praise |
O thoughts of men accurst! Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.
Praise |