This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Fearless gentleness is the most beautiful of feminine attractions born of modesty and love.
Gentleness | Modesty |
Nicolas Chamfort,fully Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort, also spelled Nicholas
There is a kind of harmful modesty which … sometimes affects men of superior character to their detriment by keeping them in a state of mediocrity. I am reminded of the remark that a certain gentleman of acknowledged eminence once made at luncheon to some persons of the Court, How bitterly I regret the time I wasted merely to learn how superior I am to all of you!
Chastity is a monkish and evangelical superstition, a greater foe to natural temperance even than unintellectual sensuality; it strikes at the root of all domestic happiness, and consigns more than half the human race to misery.
Human race | Race |
They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment.
Pirke Avot, "Verses of the Fathers" or "Ethics of the Fathers" NULL
Ben Zoma said: “Who is wise? He who learns from all men”, as it is written (Psalm 119:99) “I have gained understanding from all my teachers. Who is mighty? He who subdues his passions”, as it is written (Proverbs 16:32) “One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city. Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion”, as it is written (Psalm 128:2) “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you. You shall be refers to this world; and it shall be well with you refers to the world to come. Who is honored? He that honors his fellow men” as it is written (I Samuel 2:30) “For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt.”
Anger | Better | Despise | Honor | Labor | Temper | Understanding | Will | World |
Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.
Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.
Pliny the Elder, full name Casus Plinius Secundus NULL
As in our lives so also in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise, so to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness.
Temper |
Variety in poetry breeds self-indulgence; in gymnastics, disease: simplicity there puts temperance in the soul; here it puts health in the body.
Health | Poetry | Simplicity |
Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke
When I think about little girls in the moment of turning into big girls (it is no slow timid development but something strangely sudden), I always have to imagine an ocean behind them, or a grave eternal plain, or something else you don't actually see with your eyes but can only sense, and that only in the deep and silent hours. Then I see the big girls as being exactly as big as I was used to the little childlike girls being small--and Heaven above knows why, that's just how I want to see them. There is a reason for everything. But the best things that happen, after all, are the ones which hide their deeper reason with both hands, whether out of modesty or because they don't want to be betrayed.
Eternal | Grave | Heaven | Little | Modesty | Reason | Think |
Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
Cheerfulness | Diligence | Strength | Will |
I consider the temperance cause the foundation of all social and political reform.
Cause |
There is a manifest want of spiritual influence on the ministry of the present day. I feel it in my own case and I see it in that of others. I am afraid there is too much of a low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us. We are laying ourselves out more than is expedient to meet one man's taste and another man's prejudices. The ministry is a grand and holy affair, and it should find in us a simple habit of spirit and a holy but humble indifference to all consequences. A leading defect in Christian ministers is want of a devotional habit.
Habit | Indifference | Influence | Mind | Present | Spirit | Taste | Temper | Afraid |
It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor,--a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness.
Desires are the spiritual pulse of the soul, always beating to and fro and showing the temper of it
Temper |
It was easier to keep myself from becoming a success as an actor. Critics were careful not to outrage my modesty by their praise, and the public scrupulously refused to debauch me with applause. I have thought about it a good deal, and my conclusion is that I was ahead of my time. Or behind it.
You will reap what you will sow. (You will be rewarded or punished in accordance with what you have done to deserve it)
Rutherford B. Hayes, fully Rutherford Birchard Hayes
Coming in, I was denounced as a fraud by all the extreme men of the opposing party, and as an ingrate and a traitor by the same class of men in my own party. Going out, I have the good will, blessings, and approval of the best people of all parties and sections.
Confidence | Contrast | Fame | Giving | Greatness | History | Honesty | Logic | Modesty | Position | Sound | Success | Think |