This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Man is born to believe, and if no church comes forward with all the title deeds of truths... he will find alters and idols in his own heart and his own imagination.
Church | Deeds | Heart | Imagination | Man | Title | Will | Deeds |
He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.
Adversity | Prosperity | Will |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.
In prosperity friends do not leave you unless desired, whereas in adversity they stay away of their own accord.
Adversity | Prosperity | Friends |
The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
Better | Misfortune | Prosperity | Wise | Misfortune |
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation.
If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these; for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.
Peace | Perfection | Progress | Prosperity | Virtue | Virtue |
Prosperity is not without fears and distaste; and adversity is not without comforts and hope.
Adversity | Hope | Prosperity |
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
Adversity | Prosperity | Virtue | Virtue |
The Virtue of Prosperity is Temperance; the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude: which in Morals is the more Heroical Virtue.
Adversity | Fortitude | Prosperity | Virtue | Virtue |
To speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroic virtue.
Adversity | Fortitude | Prosperity | Virtue | Virtue |
Misfortunes are, in morals, what bitters are in medicine: each is at first disagreeable; but as the bitters act as corrobarants to the stomach, so adversity chastens and ameliorates the disposition.
True friendship is a slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Adversity | Growth | Friendship |
Both houses of Congress have, by their joint Committee, requested me “To recommend to the People of the United States, a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful Hearts the many Signal Favours of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Form of Government for their Safety and Happiness”... That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind Care and Protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation; for the signal and manifold Mercies, and the favourable Interpositions of his Providence in the Course & Conclusion of the late War; for the great Degree of Tranquillity, Union, and Plenty, which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational Manner in which we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of Government for our Safety and Happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious Liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general, for all the great and various Favours which he hath been pleased to confer upon us... to enable us all, whether in public or private Stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually... to promote the Knowledge and Practice of true Religion and Virtue, and the increase of Science among them and us; and generally to grant unto all mankind such a Degree of temporal Prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Care | Day | God | Government | Knowledge | Liberty | Mankind | Means | Opportunity | People | Plenty | Practice | Prayer | Prosperity | Providence | Public | Religion | Science | Tranquility | Virtue | Virtue | War | Government |
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Adversity | Confidence | Growth | Friendship |
Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau
The church is a sort of hospital for men’s souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies.
It is one of the worst effect of prosperity to make a man a vortex instead of a fountain; so that, instead of throwing out, he learns only to draw in.
Man | Prosperity |
Freedom is not a luxury that we can indulge in when at last we have security and prosperity and enlightenment; it is, rather, antecedent to all of these, for without it we can have neither security nor prosperity nor enlightenment.
Enlightenment | Freedom | Luxury | Prosperity | Security |