This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
How freely we live life depends both on our political system and on our vigilance in defending its liberties. How long we live depends both on our genes and on the quality of our health care. How well we live ~ that is, how thoughtfully, how nobly, how virtuously, how joyously, how lovingly - depends both on our philosophy and on the way we apply it to all else. The examined life is a better life.
Better | Care | Health | Life | Life | Philosophy | System | Vigilance |
The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything really badly that reason says you have little or no chance of getting.
Chance | Contentment | Little | Reason |
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Beauty and health are the chief sources of happiness.
The greatest baseness of man is the pursuit of glory. But it is also the great mark of his excellence; for whatever possessions he may have on earth, whatever health and essential comfort, he is not satisfied if he has not the esteem of men.
Baseness | Comfort | Earth | Esteem | Excellence | Glory | Health | Man | Men | Possessions |
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
Contentment | Enough | Little | World |
There is a difference between the two temporal blessings - health and money; money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied; and this superiority of the latter is still more obvious when we reflect that the poorest man would not part with health for money, but the richest would gladly part with all his money for health.
Blessings | Health | Man | Money | Superiority |
The only things in which we can be said to have any property are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison; they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken away by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we cannot say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world.
Calamity | Death | Disease | Good | Grave | Health | Malice | Misfortune | Nothing | Property | Reputation | Respect | Riches | World | Riches | Respect | Friends |
There is this difference between the two temporal blesses - health and money; money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied; and this superiority of the latter is still more obvious when we reflect that the poorest man would not part with health for money, but the richest man would gladly part with all his money for health.
Health | Man | Money | Superiority |
Anguish of mind has driven thousands to suicide; anguish of body, none. This proves that the health of the mind is of far more consequence to our happiness than the health of the body, although both are deserving of much more attention than either receives.
True contentment depends not on what we have - a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
Contentment | Enough | Little | World |
The seat of perfect contentment is in the head; for every individual is thoroughly satisfied with his own proportion of brains.
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but the world was too little for Alexander.
Contentment | Enough | Little | World |
Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
The chief thing you are seeking in this world is happiness; and happiness does not depend upon good health or money or fame, though good health is a large factor. It depends, however, principally on one thing only, your thoughts. If you can't have what you want, be grateful for what you have to be thankful for instead of complaining about the little things that annoy you.
God cannot be used as a stop-gap. We must not wait until we are at the end of our tether; he must be found at the center of life; in life, and not only in death; in health and vigor, and not only in suffering; in activity, and not only in sin.
Gluttony is the source of all our infirmities, and the fountain of all our diseases. As a lamp is choked by a superabundance of oil, a fire extinguished by excess of fuel, so is the natural health of the body destroyed by intemperate diet.