This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Madame de Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné
Nothing is more certain of destroying any good feeling that may be cherished towards us than to show distrust. To be suspected as an enemy is often enough to make a man become so; the whole matter is over, there is no farther use of guarding against it. On the contrary, confidence leads us naturally to act kindly, we are affected by the good opinion which others entertain of us, and we are not easily induced to lose it.
Character | Confidence | Distrust | Enemy | Enough | Good | Man | Nothing | Opinion |
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 |
Emanuel Swedenborg, born Emanujel Swedberg
He who is in evil, is also in the punishment of evil.
Character | Evil | Punishment |
Brooks Atkinson, fully Justin Brooks Atkinson
We tolerate differences of opinion in people who are familiar to us. But differences of opinion in people we do not know sounds like heresy or plots.
To maintain an opinion because it is thine, and not because it is true, is to prefer thyself above the truth.
Simeon ben Yohai, aka Simon ben Yohai or Rashbi or Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai
A liar's punishment is that he is not believed even when he tells the truth.
Character | Punishment | Truth |