This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
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
A wise man is not wise in everything.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
In truth, knowledge is a great and very useful quality; those who despise it give evidence enough of their stupidity. But yet I do not set its value at that extreme measure that some attribute to it, like Herillus the philosopher, who placed in it the sovereign good, and held that it was in its power to make us wise and content. That I do not believe, nor what others have said, that knowledge is the mother of all virtue, and all vice is produced by ignorance. If that is true, it is subject to a long interpretation.
Character | Despise | Enough | Evidence | Extreme | Good | Ignorance | Knowledge | Mother | Power | Stupidity | Truth | Virtue | Virtue | Wise | Value | Vice |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
A strong imagination begetteth opportunity, say the wise men.
Character | Imagination | Men | Opportunity | Wise |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
A man must become wise at this own expense.
Plautus, full name Titus Maccius Plautus NULL
A word to the wise is enough.