This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
When a child can be brought to tears, not from fear of punishment, but from repentance for his offense, he needs no chastisement. When the tears begin to flow from grief at one’s own conduct, be sure there is an angel nestling in the bosom.
Conduct | Fear | Grief | Offense | Punishment | Repentance | Tears | Child |
Things infinite and divine… are given not so much for definition as for trust; are less the objects we think of than the very tone and color of our thought, the tension of our love, the unappeasable thirst of grief and reverence.
Many actions calculated to procure fame are not conducive to ultimate happiness.
Fame |
The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief and disappointment. A man should direct all his studies and endeavors at making himself easy now and happy forever.
Contentment | Grief | Happy | Hope | Man | Nothing | World |
We do not know a nation until we know its pleasures of life, just as we do not know a man until we know how he spends his leisure. It is when a man ceases to do the things he has to do, and does the things he likes to do, that the character is revealed. It is when the repressions of society and business are gone and when the goads of money and fame and ambition are lifted, and man's spirit wanders where it listeth, that we see the inner man, his real self.
Ambition | Business | Character | Fame | Leisure | Life | Life | Man | Money | Self | Society | Spirit | Ambition | Society | Business |
Marcel Proust, fully Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust
Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
No grief is so acute but time ameliorates it.
Maimonides, given name Moses ben Maimon or Moshe ben Maimon, known as "Rambam" NULL
Longevity is the result of freedom from grief and worry.
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
For not only is Fortune herself blind, but she generally causes those men to be blind whose interest she has more particularly embraced. Therefore they are often haughty and arrogant; nor is there anything more intolerable than a prosperous fool. And hence we often see that men who were at one time affable and agreeable are completely changed by prosperity, despising their old friends, and clinging to the new.
Fortune | Men | Prosperity | Time | Old |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
There is no grief which times does not lessen and soften.
Grief |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.
Fortune | Reliability |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
The most learned men have told us that only the wise man is free. What is freedom but the ability to live as one will? The man who lives as he wills is none other than the one who strives for the right, who does his duty, who plans his life with forethought, and who obeys the laws because he knows it is good for him, and not out of fear. Everything he says, does, or thinks is spontaneous and free. His tasks and conduct begin and end in himself, because nothing has so much influence over him as his own counsel and decision. Even the supreme power of fortune is submissive to him. The wise poet has reminded us that fortune is molded for each man by the manner of his life. Only the wise man does nothing against his will, or with regret and by compulsion. Thought this truth deserves to be discussed at greater length, it is nevertheless proverbial that no one is free except the wise. Evil men are nothing but slaves.
Ability | Conduct | Counsel | Decision | Duty | Evil | Fear | Forethought | Fortune | Freedom | Good | Influence | Life | Life | Man | Men | Nothing | Power | Regret | Right | Thought | Truth | Will | Wills | Wise | Counsel | Thought |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
Wisdom is the only thing which can relieve us from the sway of the passions and the fear of danger, and which can teach us to bear the injuries of fortune itself with moderation, and which shows us all the ways which lead to tranquillity.
Danger | Fear | Fortune | Moderation | Teach | Tranquility | Wisdom |
Martin Seligman, Martin E. P. "Marty" Seligman
When we are happy, we are less self-focused, we like others more, and we want to share our good fortune even with strangers. When we are down, though, we become distrustful, turn inward, and focus defensively on our own needs. Looking out for Number One is more characteristic of sadness than of well-being.
Max Lerner, fully Maxwell "Max" Alan Lerner, aka Mikhail Lerner
The fact is that life has become a sweepstake. Millions of people who have lost the sense of being able to make anything of the collective effort of shaping their economic society, now expect fortune to descend like the pie from the sky.
Panchatantra or The Panchatantra NULL
All fortune belongs to him who has a contented mind. Is not the whole earth covered with leather for him whose feet are encased in shoes?