This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
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 |
Bad temper is its own scourge. Few things are bitterer than to feel bitter. A man’s venom poisons himself more than his victim.
Do not others expect from children more perfect conduct then they themselves exhibit? If a gracious child should lose his temper or act wrongly in some trifling thing through forgetfulness, straight-away he is condemned as a little hypocrite by those who are a long way from being perfect themselves.
Children | Conduct | Forgetfulness | Little | Temper | Child |
Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
The chief thing you are seeking in this world is happiness; and happiness does not depend upon good health or money or fame, though good health is a large factor. It depends, however, principally on one thing only, your thoughts. If you can't have what you want, be grateful for what you have to be thankful for instead of complaining about the little things that annoy you.
Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things.
Little |
The tranquillity or agitation of our temper does not depend so much on the big things which happen to us in life, as on the pleasant or unpleasant arrangements of the little things which happen daily.
Some glances of real beauty may be seen in their faces who dwell in true meekness. There is a harmony in the sound of that voice to which divine love gives utterance, and some appearance of right order in their temper and conduct whose passions are regulated.
Appearance | Beauty | Conduct | Harmony | Love | Meekness | Order | Right | Sound | Temper | Beauty |
A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the great weakness of human nature.
Human nature | Inconsistency | Mutability | Nature | Temper | Weakness |
Josh Billings, pen name for Henry Wheeler Shaw, aka Uncle Esek
It is the little things that fret and worry us; we can dodge an elephant, but we can't dodge a fly.
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Try to do little things in an extraordinary way.
Little |
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Do little things in an extraordinary way; be the best one in your line. You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that god's creative principle works in you. Never mind the past. Though your errors be as deep as the ocean, the soul itself cannot be swallowed up by them. Have the unflinching determination to move on your path unhampered by limiting thoughts of past errors.
Determination | God | Life | Life | Little | Mind | Past | Soul | Will | World |
R. G. Collingwood, fully Robert George Collingwood
In the later nineteenth century the idea of progress became almost an article of faith. This conception was a piece of sheer metaphysics derived from evolutionary naturalism and foisted upon history by the temper of the age.
Of cheerfulness, or a good temper - the more it is spent, the more of it remains.
Cheerfulness | Good | Temper |
We find great things are made of little things, and little things go lessening till at last comes God behind them.