This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
To praise great actions with sincerity may be said to be taking part in them.
Dwight Eisenhower, fully Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower
Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.
If we resist our passions it is more from their weakness than form our strength.
It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living.
To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.... There is no failure except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.
Failure | Genius | Power | Purpose | Purpose | Success | Weakness | Failure |
Tomes of aesthetic criticism hang on a few moments of real delight and intuition.
Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau
You do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.
Bitterness | Criticism | Man | Truth |
The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a 'but.'
If a boy is not trained to endure and to bear trouble, he will grow up a girl; and a boy that is a girl has all a girl’s weakness without any of her regal qualities. A woman made out of a woman is God’s noblest work; a woman made out of a man is His meanest.
The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a "but."
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies in dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.
Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather than its defects. The passions of men have made it malignant, as the bad heart of Procrustes turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture.
Criticism | Defects | Heart | Men | Repose | Torture | Work |
John Ciardi, fully John Anthony Ciardi
It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions.