This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Some of the virtues are intellectual and others moral, philosophic wisdom and understanding and practical wisdom being intellectual, liberality and temperance moral. For in speaking about a man’s character we do not say that he is wise or has understanding but that he is good-tempered or temperate; yet we praise the wise man also with respect to his state of mind; and of states of mind we call those which merit praise virtues.
Character | Good | Man | Merit | Mind | Praise | Respect | Understanding | Wisdom | Wise | Respect |
He is wise who knows the sources of knowledge - who knows who has written and where it is to be found.
The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worth-while to live.
Happiness itself is sufficient excuse. Beautiful things are right and true; so beautiful actions are those pleasing to the gods. Wise people have an inward sense of what is beautiful, and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition and be guided by it. The answer to the last appeal of what is right lies within a person's own breast. Trust thyself.
Intuition | People | Right | Sense | Trust | Wisdom | Wise |
Arthur C Clarke, formally Sir Arthur Charles Clark
A wise man once said that all human activity is a form of play. And the highest form of play is the search for Truth, Beauty and Love. What more is needed? Should there be a “meaning” as well, that will be a bonus. If we waste time looking for life’s meaning, we may have no time to live - or to play. Our graceful, smiling cousins in the sea may be wiser than us.
Beauty | Life | Life | Love | Man | Meaning | Play | Search | Time | Truth | Waste | Will | Wise | Beauty |
Confess that you were wrong yesterday; it will show that you are wise today.
Remedies often makes diseases worse… It takes a wise doctor to know when not to prescribe.
Wise |
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Customs may not be as wise as laws, but they are always more popular.
Wise |
Very few men are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching; for he that was taught by himself had a fool to his master.
Opportunity is rare, and a wise man will never let it go by him.
Man | Opportunity | Will | Wise |
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Know how to use your enemies. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Even knowledge has to be in fashion and where it is not it is wise to affect ignorance.