This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds; and these invaluable communication are within the reach of all." - Stéphanie Félicité, Comtesse de Genlis, born Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de Saint-Aubin
"There is a danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism." - Henry George
"Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action and when there is correct thought, right action will follow." - Henry George
"He's no failure. He's not dead yet." - William Lloyd George, 3rd Viscount Tenby
"Wisdom is the ability to do good and abandon sin." - Yonah ben Abraham Gerondi, known as Yonah of Gerona and Rabbenu Yonah
"The direct relation of music is not to ideas, but to emotions - in the works of its greatest masters, it is more marvelous, more mysterious than poetry." - Henry Giles
"The silent influence of books, is a mighty power in the world; and there is a joy in reading them known only to those who read them with desire and enthusiasm. Silent, passive, and noiseless though they be, they yet set in action countless multitudes and change the order of nations." - Henry Giles
"Instinct is the nose of the mind." - Madame Émile de Girardin, Delphine de Girardin, née Gay
"The best religion is the most tolerant." - Madame Émile de Girardin, Delphine de Girardin, née Gay
"Justice is the sum of all moral duty." - William Godwin
"All virtue is a compromise." - William Godwin
"Behavior is a mirror, in which everyone shows his image." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Forget not that the man who cannot enjoy his own natural gifts is silence, and find his reward in the; exercise of them, will generally find himself badly off." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"He who is resolute conquers grief." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to death and no one thanks him for it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and that its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set at night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"If you wish the blossom of the early and fruit of the late years, Wish what is charming and exciting, as well as nourishing and substantial. Wish to capture in one name heaven and earth." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"In all things it is better to hope than to despair." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Life is the childhood of our immortality." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"One man's word; we should quietly hear both sides." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The world cannot do without great men, but great men are very troublesome to the world." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"There is nothing in life so irrational, that good sense and chance may not set it to rights; nothing so rational, that folly and chance may not utterly confound it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to grasp it with closed eyes, fearing to be blinded...Wisdom is found only in truth." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"What is not fully understood is not possessed." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Wisdom is only found in truth." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Welfare is hated by those who administer it, mistrusted by those who pay for it and held in contempt by those who receive it." - Peter C. Goldmark, Jr.
"No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life." - Samuel Goldwyn
"Words of understanding and sympathy are wonderful instruments for unlocking the hearts and minds of men. They transcend all cultures, turning strangers into brothers, blotting out tolerance and discrimination." - Lucy R. Goodwin
"We cannot read the meaning of life passively in the facts of nature. We must construct these answers ourselves - from our own wisdom and ethical sense. There is no other way." - Stephan Jay Gould
"Back of tranquillity lies always conquered unhappiness." - David Grayson, pseudonym of Ray Stannard Baker
"Not peace at any price, but love at all costs." - Peter Green, fully Canon Peter Green
"Any person who thinks rationally will not feel discouraged in the area of personal growth and obtaining wisdom. He realizes that perfection is impossible and not required of him. Constant improvement is what is required and everyone has the ability to improve." - Avraham Grodzinski
"We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose." - Francesco Guicciardini
"Love and lordship never keep company." - Guillaume de Lorris
"Anger is seldom without argument but seldom with a good one." - Charles Montagu Halifax, 1st Earl of Halifax, Lord Halifax
"Wisdom and truth, the offspring of the sky, are immortal; while cunning and deception, the meteors of the earth, after glittering for a moment, must pass away." - Robert Hall
"I never think he is quite ready for another world who is altogether weary of this." - Hugh Hamilton
"Much of this world’s wisdom is still acquired by necromancy, by consulting the oracular dead." - Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) and his brother Augustus William Hare
"The praises of others may be of use in teaching us, not what we are, but what we ought to be." - Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) and his brother Augustus William Hare