This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Janet Erskine Stuart, known as Mother Janet Stuart
People of many kinds ask questions, but few and rare people listen to answers. Why?
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury
The best people need afflictions for trial of their virtue. How can we exercise the grace of contentment, if all things succeed well; or that of forgiveness, if we have no enemies?
Character | Contentment | Forgiveness | Grace | Need | People | Virtue | Virtue | Trial |
Jonathan Swift, pen names, M.B. Drapier, Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as we usually find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. A little, and a little, collected together become a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop from an inundation.
Man is a creature who loves to draw lines, but God is the Power that ignores lines and man-made barriers. The more able we are to see some good in everyone and some truth in all beliefs, the closer we shall come to the mind of God.
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury
When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast, and nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood.
Character | Falsehood | Integrity | Man | Nothing | Reputation | Truth | Will |
How people think, relate and react to their circumstances, not what the circumstances are, is what determines their realities.
Character | Circumstances | People |
Grief is a wound that needs attention in order to heal. To work through and complete grief means to face our feelings openly and honestly, to express and release our feelings fully and to tolerate and accept our feeling for however long it takes for the wound to heal. We fear that once acknowledged grief will bowl us over. The truth is that grief experienced does dissolve. Grief unexpressed is grief that lasts indefinitely.
Attention | Character | Fear | Feelings | Grief | Means | Order | Truth | Will | Work |
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury
He who is sincere has the easiest task in the world, for, truth being always consistent with itself, he is put to no trouble about his words and actions; it is like traveling on a plain road, which is sure to bring you to your journey's end better than byways in which many lose themselves.
Better | Character | Journey | Truth | Words | World | Trouble |