This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
It is by what we ourselves have done, and not by what others have done for us, that we shall be remembered after ages. It is by thought that has aroused the intellect from its slumbers, which has given luster to virtue and dignity to truth, or by those examples which have inflamed the soul with the love of goodness.
Character | Dignity | Love | Soul | Thought | Truth | Virtue | Virtue | Intellect | Thought |
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Catherine Bowen, née Catherine Shober Drinker
Chamber music - a conversation between friends.
Conversation | Music | Wisdom |
The genius of conversation consists much less in showing a great deal of it, than in causing it to be discovered in others.
Conversation | Genius | Wisdom |
The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.
Conversation | Wisdom |
Debt haunts the mind; a conversation about justice troubles it; the sight of a creditor fills it with confusion; even the sanctuary is not a place of refuge. The borrower is servant to the lender. Independence, so essential to the virtues and pleasures of a man, can only be maintained by setting bounds to our desires and owing no man anything.
Conversation | Debt | Justice | Man | Mind | Troubles | Wisdom |
Most of the troubles of humanity are imaginary and should be laughed out of court. It is folly to cross a bridge until you come to it, or to bid the Devil good-morning until you meet him - perfect folly. All is well until the stroke falls, and even then, nine times out of ten, it is not so bad as anticipated. A wise man is the confirmed optimist.
Devil | Folly | Good | Humanity | Man | Troubles | Wisdom | Wise |
William Cecil, Lord Burghley, 1st Baron Burghley, also Lord William Cecil Burleigh
Trust not any man with thy life, credit, or estate. For it is mere folly for a man to enthrall himself to his friend, as though, occasion being offered, he should not dare to become an enemy.
Credit | Enemy | Folly | Friend | Life | Life | Man | Trust | Wisdom |
I would rather be the author of one original thought than conqueror of a hundred battles. Yet moral excellence is so much superior to intellectual, that I ought to esteem one virtue more valuable than a hundred original thoughts.
Esteem | Excellence | Thought | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | Excellence | Thought |