This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by the tenderness of the best of hearts.
Character | Prudence | Prudence | Tenderness |
Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion.
Character | Majority | Men | Persuasion |
We settle things by a majority vote, and the psychological effect of doing that is to create the impression that the majority is probably right. Of course, on any fine issue the majority is sure to be wrong. Think of taking a majority vote on the best music. Jazz would win over Chopin. Or on the best novel. Many cheap scribblers would win over Tolstoy. And any day a prizefight will get a bigger crowd, larger gate receipts and wider newspaper publicity than any new revelation of goodness, truth or beauty could hope to achieve in a century.
Beauty | Character | Day | Hope | Impression | Majority | Music | Revelation | Right | Truth | Will | Wrong | Beauty | Think |
In matters of conscience first thoughts are best; in matters of prudence last thoughts are best.
Character | Conscience | Prudence | Prudence |
Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra, also known as Ben Ezra or Abenezra
The vast majority of people are slavers to their desires. The true king who deserves a royal crown is only a person who is free from the pressures of his desires.
Garrison Keillor, fully Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor
Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.
Søren Kierkegaard, fully Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
The majority of man are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others, terribly objective sometimes, but the real task is in fact to be objective towards oneself and subjective towards all others.
We are not asking our children to do their own best but to be the best. Education is in danger of becoming a religion based on fear; its doctrine is to compete. The majority of our children are being led to believe that they are doomed to failure in a world which has room only for those at the top.
Character | Children | Danger | Doctrine | Education | Failure | Fear | Majority | Religion | World | Danger | Failure |
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
I consider it a mark of great prudence in a man to abstain from threats or any contemptuous expressions, for neither of these weaken the enemy, but threats make him more cautious, and the other excites his hatred, and a desire to revenge himself.
Character | Desire | Enemy | Man | Prudence | Prudence | Revenge |
Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens
The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence of the aggressive and pitiless minority they don't dare to assert themselves.
W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. This is bad for everyone; the majority lose all genuine taste of their own, and the minority become cultural snobs.
Art | Entertainment | Majority | Taste | Wisdom |
Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman
Whatever satisfies souls is true; prudence entirely satisfies the craving and glut of souls, itself only finally satisfies the soul, the soul has that measureless pride which revolts from every lesson but its own.