This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Of cheerfulness or a good temper - the more it is spent, the more of it remains.
Cheerfulness | Good | Temper |
The passion of desire is an agitation of the soul caused by the spirits which dispose it to wish for the future the things which it represents to itself as agreeable. Thus we do not only desire the presence of the absent good, but also the conservation of the present, and further, the absence of evil, both of that which we already have, and of that which we believe we might experience in time to come.
Absence | Agitation | Conservation | Desire | Evil | Experience | Future | Good | Passion | Present | Soul | Time |
Russell H. Conwell, fully Russell Herman Conwell
The power of little things to give instruction and happiness should be the first lesson in life, and it should be inculcated deeply.
Lesson | Life | Life | Little | Power | Instruction | Happiness |
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
Ability | Confidence | Education | Self | Self-confidence | Temper |
Arthur Conan Doyle, fully Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle
It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
Anger is rooted in our lack of understanding of ourselves and of the causes, deep-seated as well as immediate, that brought about this unpleasant state of affairs. Anger is also rooted in desire, pride, agitation and suspicion. The primary roots of our anger are in ourselves. Our environment and other people are only secondary. It is not difficult for us to accept the enormous damage brought abut by a natural disaster, such as an earthquake or a flood. But when damage is caused by another person, we don’t have much patience. We know that earthquakes and floods have causes, and we should see that the person who has precipitated our anger also has reasons, deep-seated and immediate, for what he has done.
Agitation | Anger | Desire | Patience | People | Pride | Suspicion | Understanding |
There is no greater every-day virtue than cheerfulness. This quality in man among men is like sunshine to the day or gentle renewing moisture to parched herbs. The light of a cheerful face diffuses itself, and communicates the happy spirit that inspires it. The sourest temper must sweeten in the atmosphere of continuous good humor.
Cheerfulness | Day | Good | Happy | Humor | Light | Man | Men | Spirit | Temper | Virtue | Virtue |
The difficult part of good temper consists in forbearance, and accommodation to the ill-humors of others.
Forbearance | Good | Temper |
What we call good sense in the conduct of life consists chiefly in that temper of mind which enables its possessor to view at all times, with perfect coolness and accuracy, all the various circumstances of his situation: so that each of them may produce its due impression on him, without any exaggeration arising from his own peculiar habits. But to a man of an ill-regulated imagination, external circumstances only serve as hints to excite his own thoughts, and the conduct he pursues has in general far less reference to his real situation than to some imaginary one in which he conceives himself to be placed: in consequence of which, while he appears to himself to be acting with the most perfect wisdom and consistency, he may frequently exhibit to others all the appearances of folly.
Accuracy | Circumstances | Conduct | Consistency | Exaggeration | Folly | Good | Imagination | Impression | Life | Life | Man | Mind | Sense | Temper | Wisdom |
The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.
John Wooden, fully John Robert Wooden
It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
Little |
Milton Friedman, fully John Milton Friedman
In a much quoted passage in his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." It is a striking sign of the temper of our times that the controversy about this passage centered on its origin and not on its content. Neither half of the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. The paternalistic "what your country can do for you" implies that government is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man's belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, "what you can do for your country" implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant or the votary. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshiped and served. He recognizes no national goal except as it is the consensus of the goals that the citizens severally serve. He recognizes no national purpose except as it is the consensus of the purposes for which the citizens severally strive.
Belief | Controversy | Goals | God | Government | Ideals | Men | Purpose | Purpose | Responsibility | Temper | Government | God |
Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were big things.
I suspect it was...the old story of the implacable necessity of a man having honour within his own natural spirit. A man cannot live and temper his mettle without such honour. There is deep in him a sense of the heroic quest; and our modern way of life, with its emphasis on security, its distrust of the unknown and its elevation of abstract collective values has repressed the heroic impulse to a degree that may produce the most dangerous consequences.
Abstract | Distrust | Impulse | Man | Mettle | Necessity | Sense | Story | Temper | Old |