This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
As it is in himself alone that man can find true and enduring happiness, so in himself alone can he find true and efficient consolation in misfortune.
Character | Consolation | Man | Misfortune | Wisdom |
Interest makes some people blind and others quick-sided. We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. Virtues are lost in interest, as rivers are swallowed up in the sea.
A guilty conscience is a hell on earth, and points to one beyond.
Character | Conscience | Earth | Hell | Guilty |
When a man does a noble act, date him from that. Forget his faults. Let his noble act be the standpoint from which you regard him.
There is no unmixed good in human affairs; the best principles, if pushed to excess, degenerate into fatal vices. Generosity is nearly allied to extravagance; charity itself may lead to ruin; the sternness of justice is but one step removed from the severity of oppression. It is the same in the political world; the tranquillity of despotism resembles the stagnation of the Dead Sea; the fever of innovation the tempests of the ocean It would seem as if, at particular periods, from causes inscrutable to human wisdom, a universal frenzy seizes mankind; reason, experience, prudence, are alike blinded; and the very classes who are to perish in the storm are the first to raise its fury.
Character | Charity | Excess | Experience | Extravagance | Fury | Generosity | Good | Innovation | Justice | Mankind | Oppression | Principles | Prudence | Prudence | Reason | Tranquility | Wisdom | World |
Sorrow comes soon enough without despondency. It does a man no good to carry around a lightning-rod to attract trouble.
As a remedy against all ills - poverty, sickness, and melancholy - only one thing is absolutely necessary: a liking for work.
Character | Melancholy | Poverty | Work |