This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Cardinal de Retz, Jean Francois-Paul de Gondil
Of all passions, fear weakens judgment most.
H. F. Rall, fully Harris Franklin
Freedom means mastery of your world. Fear and greed are common sources of bondage. We are afraid, beset by anxiety. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We seem so helpless over against the forces that move now without apparent thought for men. And our inner freedom is destroyed by greed. We think that if we only had enough goods we should be free, happy, without care. And so there comes the lust for money, and slavery to the world of things. The world can enslave; it can never make us free.
Anxiety | Anxiety | Care | Character | Enough | Fear | Freedom | Greed | Happy | Lust | Means | Men | Money | Slavery | Thought | Tomorrow | Will | World | Think | Thought |
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
Self-pity deprives us of the beauty of the past; fear deprives us of the beauty of the future; and jealousy deprives us of the beauty of the moment.
Beauty | Character | Fear | Future | Jealousy | Past | Pity | Self | Beauty |
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
Fear arises in two forms. Either you fear losing what you have, or you fear not getting what you want.
Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz, aka Pinchas or Pinchos of Koretz
Imagine a man was standing before a king. Someone comes along and slaps that person in the face. Out of fear of the king the man will be almost oblivious to the blow. Moreover, he will think to himself, “I can’t retaliate now. The king witnessed what he did tome. If the king approves, nothing I do will help. If the king disapproves of what he did, the king himself will punish that person for what he has done to me.” Similarly we are in the presence of the Almighty and should not reply to insults.
Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, aka Beis Halevi
Fear destroys desires... Even a small amount of fear of the Almighty will remove your coveting.
Felix Schelling, fully Felix Emmanuel Schelling
True education makes for inequality; the inequality of individuality the inequality of success; the glorious inequality of talent, of genius, for inequality, not mediocrity, individual superiority, not standardization, is the measure of the progress of the world.
Character | Education | Genius | Individual | Individuality | Inequality | Mediocrity | Progress | Standardization | Success | Superiority | World |
Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority; envy our uneasiness under it.
Character | Envy | Fear | Jealousy | Superiority |