This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority; envy our uneasiness under it.
Character | Envy | Fear | Jealousy | Superiority |
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 |
If you feel envious of others, you will never enjoy life. You will always find someone else to envy regardless of what you yourself have. There will invariably be another person who is greater than you in either wisdom, wealth, or power. Unless you stop comparing yourself with others, your entire life will be full of needless pain and suffering.
Character | Envy | Life | Life | Pain | Power | Suffering | Wealth | Will | Wisdom |
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 |