This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Inconsistency with ourselves is the great weakness of human nature.
Human nature | Inconsistency | Nature | Weakness |
Superstition, in all times and among all nations, is the fear of a spirit whose passions are those of a man, whose acts are the acts of a man; who is present in some places, not in others; who makes some places holy and not others; who is kind to one person, unkind to another; who is pleased or angry according to the degree of attention you pay him, or praise you refuse him; who is hostile generally to human pleasure, but may be bribed by sacrifice of a part of that pleasure into permitting the rest. This, whatever form of faith it colors, is the essence of superstition.
Attention | Faith | Fear | Man | Nations | Pleasure | Praise | Present | Rest | Sacrifice | Spirit | Superstition |
Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it.
Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul; and thus it may be looked on as weakness in the composition of human nature. But if we consider the frequent reliefs we receive from it and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to depress the mind and damp our spirits, with transient, unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life.
Care | Gloom | Human nature | Joy | Laughter | Life | Life | Mind | Nature | Pleasure | Receive | Soul | Weakness | Wise |
The highest thoughts are those which are least dependent on language, and the dignity of any composition and praise to which it is entitled are in exact proportion to is dependency of language and expression.
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the great weakness of human nature.
Human nature | Inconsistency | Mutability | Nature | Temper | Weakness |
Miserable indeed is a world in which we have knowledge without understanding, criticism without appreciation, beauty without love, truth without passion, righteousness without mercy, and courtesy without a warm heart!
Appreciation | Beauty | Courtesy | Criticism | Heart | Knowledge | Love | Mercy | Passion | Righteousness | Truth | Understanding | World | Beauty |
Know your own true worth, and you shall not perish. Reason is your light and beacon of Truth. Reason is the source of Life. God has given you Knowledge, so that by its light you may not only worship him, but also see yourself in your weakness and strength.
God | Knowledge | Life | Life | Light | Reason | Strength | Truth | Weakness | Worship | Worth | God |
The foundation of irreligious criticism is this: man makes religion; religion does not make man. Religion is, in fact, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet gained himself or has lost himself again... The wretchedness of religion is at once an express of and a protest against real wretchedness. Religion is the sigh of the opposed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
Consciousness | Criticism | Esteem | Heart | Man | People | Protest | Religion | Self | Self-esteem | Soul | World |
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.
Despair | Kindness | Resolution | Strength | Tenderness | Weakness |
Karl Popper, fully Sir Karl Raimund Popper
Science must begin with myths: with the criticism of myths.
Every society is often composed of the weakness that we're damned if we are going to show.
The way of this world is to praise dead saints and persecute living ones.
Octavio Paz, born Octavio Paz Lozano
Our civilization has been founded on the notion of criticism: there is nothing sacred or untouchable except the freedom to think. Without criticism, that is to say, without rigor and experimentation, there is no science; without criticism there is no art or literature. I would also say that without criticism there is no healthy society.
Art | Civilization | Criticism | Freedom | Literature | Nothing | Sacred | Science | Society | Art |
“Every morning of the world I give thanks for all the wonderful things in my life,” declared a young man enthusiastically. “And do you know something? It’s strange indeed, but the more I give thanks, the more I have reason to be thankful. For, you see, blessings just pile up on me one after another like nobody’s business”... The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for... The attitude of gratitude revitalizes the entire mental process by activating all other attitudes, thus stimulating creativity... Remember that praise and thanksgiving are the most powerful prayers of all.
Art | Blessings | Business | Creativity | Gratitude | Life | Life | Man | Practice | Praise | Reason | Thankfulness | World | Art |
Ovid, formally Publius Ovidius Naso NULL
You cloak your weakness in big words.