This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.
He who gives himself to justice and peace, he who recognizes that life is too short for men to be little, he who honors life as the medium for that which is abiding and permanent, will not fritter it away on that which is shallow and petty. . . This is the balanced attitude: Not to try to escape life or to underestimate it; not to see it only as an insignificant moment between birth and death, but also, in recognizing its brevity, to cherish the opportunity it gives us for producing that which is eternal.
The weaknesses and defects, the bad passions, the mean tendencies, and the moral diseases which lead to crime, are handed down from one generation to another, by a far surer process of transmission than human law has been able to establish, in respect to the riches and honors which it seeks to entail upon posterity.
If morality is always relative to one’s own society, then you, coming from your society, have your moral standards and I, coming from my society, have mine. It follows that when I criticize your moral standards, I am simply expressing the morality of my society, but it also follows that when you condemn me for criticizing the moral standards of your society, you are simply expressing the morality of your society. There is, on this view, no way of moving outside the morality of one’s own society and expressing a transcultural or objective moral judgment about anything, including respect for the cultures of different peoples. Hence if we happen to live in a culture that honors those who subdue other societies and suppress their cultures, then that is our morality, and the relativist can offer no cogent reason why we should not simply get on with it.
Culture | Judgment | Morality | Reason | Respect | Society | Society | Respect |
Man was mark'd a friend in his creation to himself, and may, with fit ambition, conceive the greatest blessings, and the highest honors appointed for him, if he can achieve them the right and noble way.
And I understood then that I was a fool when I told you I would take my turn in singing the honors of Love, and admitted I was terribly clever in love affairs, whereas it seems I really had no idea how a eulogy ought to be made. For I was stupid enough to think that we ought to speak the truth about each person eulogized, and to make this the foundation, and from these truths to choose the most beautiful things and arrange them in the most elegant way; and I was quite proud to think how well I should speak, because I believed that I knew the truth.
Pirke Avot, "Verses of the Fathers" or "Ethics of the Fathers" NULL
Ben Zoma said: “Who is wise? He who learns from all men”, as it is written (Psalm 119:99) “I have gained understanding from all my teachers. Who is mighty? He who subdues his passions”, as it is written (Proverbs 16:32) “One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city. Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion”, as it is written (Psalm 128:2) “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you. You shall be refers to this world; and it shall be well with you refers to the world to come. Who is honored? He that honors his fellow men” as it is written (I Samuel 2:30) “For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt.”
Anger | Better | Despise | Honor | Labor | Temper | Understanding | Will | World |
Pirke Avot, "Verses of the Fathers" or "Ethics of the Fathers" NULL
Ben Zoma said, “Who is wise? The one who learns from all people… Who is mighty? The one who subdues the evil inclination… Who is rich? The who rejoices in his portion… Who is honored? The one who honors other human beings.”
Evil |
We find greatest joy, not in getting, but in expressing what we are. Men do not really live for honors or for pay; their gladness is not the taking and holding, but in doing, the striving, the building, the living. It is a higher joy to teach than to be taught. It is good to get justice, but better to do it; fun to have things but more to make them. The happy man is he who lives the life of love, not for the honors it may bring, but for the life itself.
Better | Fun | Good | Happy | Joy | Life | Life | Man | Men | Teach |
He who loves his wife as himself, and honors her more than himself, will train his children properly; he will
I knew that the languages which one learns there are necessary to understand the works of the ancients; and that the delicacy of fiction enlivens the mind; that famous deeds of history ennoble it and, if read with understanding, aid in maturing one's judgment; that the reading of all the great books is like conversing with the best people of earlier times; it is even studied conversation in which the authors show us only the best of their thoughts; that eloquence has incomparable powers and beauties; that poetry has enchanting delicacy and sweetness; that mathematics has very subtle processes which can serve as much to satisfy the inquiring mind as to aid all the arts and diminish man's labor; that treatises on morals contain very useful teachings and exhortations to virtue; that theology teaches us how to go to heaven; that philosophy teaches us to talk with appearance of truth about things, and to make ourselves admired by the less learned; that law, medicine, and the other sciences bring honors and wealth to those who pursue them; and finally, that it is desirable to have examined all of them, even to the most superstitious and false in order to recognize their real worth and avoid being deceived thereby
Aid | Appearance | Books | Conversation | Deeds | Famous | History | Mathematics | Mind | Order | People | Philosophy | Poetry | Reading | Theology | Truth | Wealth | Worth | Deeds | Understand |
It is good to preserve the name, wealth, and honors you inherit, but it is better in every way if you yourself create a position and a name. The first requires good sense, but the second demands willpower and great virtue.
Alister Hardy, fully Sir Alister Clavering Hardy
My heart is in the Church of England but not my mind.
Evil |
Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL
The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance. The mind commands the hand to move, and it so easy that one hardly distinguishes the order from its execution. Yet mind is mind and hand is body. The mind orders the mind to will. The recipient of the order is itself, yet it does not perform it.
Peril |
Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL
The truly pure of heart are those who despise the things of earth and seek the things of heaven, and who never cease to adore and behold the Lord God living and true with a pure heart and soul.
Consciousness | Duty | Praise | Public |