This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The true grandeur of nations is in those qualities which constitute the true greatness of the individual.
Greatness | Individual | Nations | Qualities | Wisdom |
It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is but an accumulation of small facts, made by successive generations of men, the little bits of knowledge and experience carefully treasured up and growing at length into a mighty pyramid.
Art | Business | Experience | Knowledge | Life | Life | Little | Men | Observation | Science | Success | Wisdom |
It is the little things in life that are the sublime things. It is the minor parts of the great drama which make up the whole. The handclasp, the smile, the words of confidence or encouragement; these are the strength and bulwark of society, business, religion - and home life. Without them, there would be no trust; without trust, our world would collapse.
Business | Confidence | Life | Life | Little | Religion | Smile | Society | Strength | Trust | Wisdom | Words | World |
Alexis de Tocqueville, fully Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville
We may naturally believe that it is not the singular prosperity of the few, but the greater well-being of all that is most pleasing in the sight of the Creator and Preserver of men. What appears to me to be man’s decline, is His eye, advancement; what afflicts me is acceptable to Him. A state of equality is perhaps less elevated, but it is more just: and its justice constitutes its greatness and its beauty. I would strive, then, to raise myself to this point of the divine contemplation and thence to view and judge the concerns of men.
Beauty | Contemplation | Equality | Greatness | Justice | Man | Men | Prosperity | Wisdom | Contemplation |
Technology by itself is never a primary cause of either greatness or decline.
Cause | Greatness | Technology |
Winston Churchill, fully Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
The price of greatness is responsibility.
Greatness | Price | Responsibility |
All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.
Character | Existence | Greatness | Individuality | Man | Mediocrity | Will |
Greatness is a matter not of size but of quality, and it is within the reach of every one of us. Greatness lies in the faithful performance of whatever duties life places upon us and in the generous performance of the small acts of kindness that God has made possible for us. There is greatness in patient endurance; in unyielding loyalty to a goal; in resistance to the temptation to betray the best we know; in speaking up for the truth when it is assailed; in steadfast adherence to vows given and promises made. God does not ask us to do extraordinary things. He asks us to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Endurance | God | Greatness | Kindness | Life | Life | Loyalty | Loyalty | Size | Temptation | Truth | Vows | God | Temptation |
Oswald Hoffmann, fully Oswald C. J. Hoffmann
Can anyone think of believing in God without trusting Him? Is it possible to trust in God for the big things like forgiveness and eternal life, and then refuse to trust Him for the little things like clothing and food?
Eternal | Forgiveness | God | Life | Life | Little | Trust | Forgiveness | God | Think |
Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi
There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent.
Greatness | Simplicity | Truth |
Harry Jack Gray, born Harry Jack Grusin
No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.
I've found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.