This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Robert Briffault, fully Robert Stephen Briffault
The full-grown modern human being who seeks but refuge finds instead boredom and mental dissolution, unless he can be, even in his withdrawal, creative. He can find the quality of happiness in the strain and travail only of achievement and growth. And he is conscious of touching the highest pinnacle of fulfillment which his life-urges demand when his is consumed in the service of an idea, in the conquest of the goal pursued.
Achievement | Character | Conquest | Fulfillment | Growth | Life | Life | Service | Happiness |
Brotherhood doesn't come in a package. It is not a commodity to be taken down from the shelf with one hand - it is an accomplishment of soul-searching prayer, and perseverance... The spontaneous feeling of brotherhood is a mark of human maturity.
Accomplishment | Brotherhood | Character | Perseverance | Prayer | Soul |
Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland
There is no great achievement that is not the result of patient working and waiting.
Achievement | Character | Waiting |
Arianna Huffington, born Arianna Stassinopoulos
Consumption, celebrity and the quest for perfection in this world are all subject to the law of diminishing returns: each successive acquisition and achievement will mean less than the one before. Diminishing returns are finally leading to diminished expectations about the promise of finding happiness without caring for our souls. Perhaps we are now ready to reject the hucksters of materialisms that have lured us down so many dead ends, and start again on the road that will lead us back to God.
Achievement | Character | Ends | God | Law | Perfection | Promise | Will | World | Happiness |
Garrison Keillor, fully Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor
I look upon the world as my fatherland... I look upon true patriotism as the brotherhood of man and the service of all to all.
Brotherhood | Character | Man | Patriotism | Service | World |
Vigilance in watching opportunity; tact and daring in seizing upon opportunity; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost possible achievement - these are the martial virtues which must command success.
Achievement | Character | Daring | Force | Opportunity | Persistence | Success | Tact | Vigilance |
Winfred Rhoades, fully Winfred Chesney Rhoades
Life's greatest achievement is the continual re-making of yourself so that at last you know how to live.
Achievement | Character | Life | Life |
Brooks Atkinson, fully Justin Brooks Atkinson
The humorous man recognizes that absolute purity, absolute justice, absolute logic and perfection are beyond human achievement and that men have been able to live happily for thousands of years in a state of genial frailty.
Absolute | Achievement | Justice | Logic | Man | Men | Perfection | Purity | Wisdom |
We can accomplish almost anything within our ability if we but think we can! Every great achievement in this world was first carefully thought out... Think - but to a purpose. Think constructively. Think as you read. Think as you listen. Think as you travel and eyes reveal new situations. Think as you work daily at your place in life. There can be no advancement or success without serious thought.
Ability | Achievement | Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | Success | Thought | Wisdom | Work | World | Think | Thought |
What looks like a loss may be the very event which is subsequently responsible for helping to produce the major achievement of your life.
Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It is a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.
Accomplishment | Achievement | Man | Nothing | Wisdom | Obstacle |
American society is characterized by spontaneous, voluntary, non-governmental cooperation of citizens in their local communities. It is brotherhood in actin.
Brotherhood | Cooperation | Society | Wisdom | Society |
Fyodor Dostoevsky, fully Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky or Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevski
Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.
Achievement | Wisdom |
The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible.
Achievement | Devotion | Thought | Wisdom | Thought |