This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The most effective way to cope with change is to help create it.
The foolish and dead alone never change their opinions.
There is no outward sign of politeness which has not a deep, moral reason. Behavior is a mirror in which every one shows his own image. There is a politeness of the heart akin to love, from which springs the easiest politeness of outward behavior... Politeness is not always a sign of wisdom, but the want of it always leaves room for the suspicion of folly.
Behavior | Character | Folly | Heart | Love | Reason | Suspicion | Wisdom | Politeness |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. and if we perceive no evident change and improvement, it would be better to leave it alone; learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it be wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use.
Better | Change | Character | Giving | Improvement | Learning | Mind |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
There is no existence that is constant, either of our being or of that of objects. And we, and our judgment, and all mortal things go on flowing and rolling unceasingly. Thus nothing certain can be established about one thing by another, both the judging and the judged being in continual change and motion.
Change | Character | Existence | Judgment | Mortal | Nothing |
Madame de Motteville, Françoise Bertaut de Motteville
If only man could be induced to laugh more they might hate less, and find more serenity here on earth. If they cannot worship together, or accept the same laws, or tolerate the wonderful diversity of thought and behavior and physique with which they have been blessed, at least they can laugh together.
Behavior | Character | Diversity | Earth | Hate | Man | Serenity | Thought | Worship | Thought |
Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin NULL
A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
The laws of conscience, which we say are born of nature, are born of custom. Each man, holding in inward veneration the opinions and the behavior approved and accepted around him, cannot break loose from them without remorse, or apply himself to them without self-satisfaction.
Behavior | Character | Conscience | Custom | Man | Nature | Remorse | Self |
No one can change himself beyond his life, hereafter, beyond his Time, but only within his life. His attainment of unity is something that must belong to his life, this life, that is himself; and if we can equate unity and ‘eternal life’, it is something that cannot life in some ‘tomorrow’ or ‘hereafter’ beyond a man’s life. Its possibilities belong to us now, to something we have to do now. It is this life that must be worked upon, be made more real, by separating the false by insight.
Attainment | Change | Character | Eternal | Insight | Life | Life | Man | Time | Tomorrow | Unity |
Rabbi Eliezer ben Isaac Papo, aka "ha-Kosesh" or "The Saint"
By analyzing your worries, you will become aware that all worry is useless. Worries fall into two categories: worrying about the past and worrying about the future. As regards to the past, worry will not change the situation. You are compounding your suffering or loss by your present worrying. If you are worrying about something that might happen in the future, do what you can to protect yourself and prevent a loss. If there is nothing you can do, all your worrying will make no difference. So why waste your present moments worrying?
Change | Character | Future | Nothing | Past | Present | Suffering | Waste | Will | Worry | Loss |
We live in a narrow reality, partly conditioned by our form of perception and partly made by opinions that we have borrowed, to which our self-esteem is fastened. We fight for our opinions, not because we believe them but because they involve the ordinary feeling of oneself. Though we are continually being hurt owing to the narrowness of the reality in which we dwell, we blame life, and do not see the necessity of finding absolutely new standpoints. All ideas that have a transforming power change our sense of reality.
Blame | Change | Character | Esteem | Ideas | Life | Life | Necessity | Perception | Power | Reality | Self | Self-esteem | Sense |
Rabbi Eliezer ben Isaac Papo, aka "ha-Kosesh" or "The Saint"
Frequently when we get angry at someone we fail to realize that he sees the situation much differently than we do. While we think he is acting wrongly, he views his behavior as correct. Since he is acting in a manner he considers proper, we should not condemn him and become angry.