This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. so do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine.
Beauty | Character | Labor | Light | Virtue | Virtue | Work | Beauty |
To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.
God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.
Better | Character | Evil | God | Temptation | Wisdom | Temptation |
For most or even all forms of evil serve the Universe - much as the poisonous snake has it use - though in most cases their function is unknown. Vice itself has many useful sides: it brings about much that is beautiful, in artistic creations for example, and it stirs us to thoughtful living, not allowing us to drowse in security.
Tai-shang Kan-Ying Pien (Treatise of the Exalted One on Response and Retribution) NULL
The recompense of good and evil follows as the shadow follows the figure.
Character | Evil | Good | Recompense |
Even when there is no law, there is conscience... An evil conscience is often quiet, but never secure.
Character | Conscience | Evil | Law | Quiet |
Temperance and labor are the two best physicians; the one sharpens the appetite - the other prevents indulgence to excess.
Appetite | Character | Excess | Indulgence | Labor |