This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
George Savile, fully Sir George Savile, 1st Marquis of Halifax
Popularity is a crime from the moment it is sought; it is only a virtue when men have it whether they will or not.
Character | Crime | Men | Popularity | Virtue | Virtue | Will |
Richard Steele, fully Sir Richard Steele
As for my labors, if they can but wear one impertinence out of human life, destroy a single vice, or give a morning’s cheerfulness to an honest mind - in short, if the world can be but one virtue the better, or in any degree less vicious, or receive from then the smallest addition to their innocent diversions - I shall not think my pains, or indeed my life, to have been spent in vain.
Better | Character | Cheerfulness | Destroy | Impertinence | Life | Life | Mind | Receive | Virtue | Virtue | World | Think |
Richard Steele, fully Sir Richard Steele
The great foundation of civil virtue is self-denial.
Character | Self | Self-denial | Virtue | Virtue |
Francis Walsingham, fully Sir Francis Walsingham
Every virtue gives a man a degree of felicity in some kind: honesty gives a man a good report; justice, estimation; prudence, respect; courtesy and liberality, affection; temperance gives health; fortitude, a quiet mind, not to be moved by any adversity.
Adversity | Character | Courtesy | Estimation | Fortitude | Good | Health | Honesty | Justice | Man | Mind | Prudence | Prudence | Quiet | Respect | Virtue | Virtue |