This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Anger causes us often to condemn in one what we approve in another.
The strong man does not always ride the wave of success. The strong man is the one who can turn the misfortune of life into character; the one who is committed to the essential and not the superficial. He faces and overcomes inner challenges and depends not on outer acclaim.
Character | Life | Life | Man | Misfortune | Success | Misfortune |
Moshe Rosenstein, fully Moshe ben Chaim Rosenstein
A person who appreciates that the Almighty created everything in the world for his benefit is aware of the multitude of good things he has in the world. With this appreciation, no one considers himself poor in comparison to anyone else just because the other person has a little more than him. Even the poorest person in the world has many things for which to be thankful. Everyone has the ability to be in a state of happiness. Do not allow another person’s having more than you rob you of your happiness.
Ability | Appreciation | Character | Good | Little | World |
In the commission of evil, fear no man so much as thyself; another is but one witness against thee, thou art a thousand; another thou mayest avoid, thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its own punishment.
Art | Character | Evil | Fear | Man | Punishment | Wickedness | Witness | Art |
In the commission of evil, fear no man so much as thyself. Another is but one witness against thee; thou art a thousand. Another thou mayst avoid, thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its own punishment.
Art | Character | Evil | Fear | Man | Punishment | Wickedness | Witness | Art |
Moshe Rosenstein, fully Moshe ben Chaim Rosenstein
What is the difference between mourning and sadness? Mourning takes hold of one’s heart, but not one’s mind, while sadness takes hold of the mind. Mourning leads to thinking, while sadness stops one’s thoughts. Mourning stems from the light in one’s soul, while sadness comes from the darkness of the soul. Mourning arouses one to life, while sadness brings to the opposite. The Torah obligates mourning when it is appropriate, while it forbids sadness and commands we serve the Almighty with joy.
Character | Darkness | Heart | Joy | Life | Life | Light | Mind | Mourning | Sadness | Soul | Thinking | Torah |
No matter how one's heart aches, one can do the necessary things and do them well.
W. D. Ross, fully Sir William David Ross
No act is ever, in virtue of falling under some general description, necessarily actually right... moral acts often (as every one knows) and indeed always (on reflection we must admit) have different characteristics that tend to make them a the same time prima facie right and prima facie wrong; there is probably no act, for instance, which does good to anyone without doing harm to someone else, and vice versa.
Character | Good | Harm | Reflection | Right | Time | Virtue | Virtue | Wrong | Vice |
The image of God is found essentially and personally in all mankind. Each possess it whole, entire and undivided, and all together not more than one alone. In this way we are all one, intimately united in our eternal image, which is the image of God and the source in us of all our life. Our created essence and our life are attached to it without mediation as to their eternal cause.
Cause | Character | Eternal | God | Life | Life | Mankind | God |
Willard Quine, fully Willard Van Orman Quine
One man’s antinomy is another man’s falsidical paradox, give or take a couple of thousand years... One man’s antinomy can be another man’s verdical paradox, and one man’s verdical paradox can be another man’s platitude.