This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Freedom of speech is the safety valve of society; if it is obstructed, there will be an explosion somewhere. It is dangerous to tamper with this right of ours.
Consequences | Knowledge | Right | Will |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.
Confidence | Genius | Knowledge | Maxims | Neglect | Nothing | Will |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
The slave of pleasure soon sinks in a kind of voluptuous dotage; intoxicated with present delights, and careless of everything else, his days and nights glide away in luxury or vice, and he has no care, but to keep thought away: for thought is troublesome to him, who lives without his own approbation.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness, than confers pleasure. We are more pained by ignorance, than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul.
Conversation | Knowledge | Man | Principles |
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. In the same manner present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges, and intent upon future advantages. Life, however short, is made shorter by waste of time.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor, but, even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Many have no happier moments than those that they pass in solitude, abandoned to their own imagination, which sometimes puts sceptres in their hands or miters on their heads, shifts the scene of pleasure with endless variety, bids all the forms of beauty sparkle before them, and gluts them with every change of visionary luxury.
Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson
Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
Shrimad Bhagavatam, or the Bhâgavata Purâna, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or Bhāgavata NULL
Sons ought to render service to their father exactly to this extent. One should obey the command of his father or spiritual master with due deference, saying, Yes, sir.
Illusion | Intelligence | Knowledge | Soul | Wife |
Shrimad Bhagavatam, or the Bhâgavata Purâna, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or Bhāgavata NULL
To become restless in the contact of women and wealth is not an astonishment, because every living being is associated with such things from remote time, practically immemorial, and it takes time to recover from this foreign nature.
The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice.
Experience | Hope | Individual | Knowledge | Property | Wisdom |
Wisdom is an affair of values, and of value judgments. It is intelligent conduct of human affairs.
No one can grasp Him above, across, or in the middle. There is no likeness of Him. His name is Great Glory (Mahad Yasah).
The enjoyer (jiva), the objects of enjoyment and the Ruler (Isvara)-the triad described by the knowers of Brahman-all this is nothing but Brahman. This Brahman alone, which abides eternally within the self, should be known. Beyond It, truly, there is nothing else to be known.
Body | Deeds | Enjoyment | Evil | Good | Knowledge | Means | Mind | Virtue | Virtue | Deeds |