This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Men pursue riches under the idea that their possession will set them at ease and above the world. But the law of association often makes those who begin by loving gold as a servant, finish by becoming its slaves; and independence without wealth is at least as common as wealth without independence.
Association | Gold | Law | Men | Riches | Wealth | Will | World | Riches | Association |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
The Master said... 'Have no friends not equal to yourself'....The Master said, 'The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort'... The Master said, 'It is only the wisest and the very stupidest who cannot change.'... Being true to oneself is the law of God. To try to be true to oneself is the law of man.
Change | Comfort | God | Law | Man | Virtue | Virtue | Friends |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
There is no place in the highest heavens above nor in the deepest waters below where the moral law does not reign.
Dan Millman, born Daniel Jay Millman
Discipline is the surest means to greater freedom and independence; it provides the focus to achieve the skill level and depth of knowledge that translates into more options in life... The Law of Discipline points to a paradox. While freedom is our transcendent birthright, it must be earned in this world; discipline remains the key to freedom and independence.
Discipline | Focus | Freedom | Knowledge | Law | Life | Life | Means | Paradox | Skill | World |
Only life can satisfy the demands of life... Don’t be afraid of yourself, live your individuality to the full - but for the good of others. Don’t copy others in order to buy fellowship, or make convention your law instead of living the righteousness.
Convention | Good | Individuality | Law | Life | Life | Order | Righteousness | Afraid |
Dante, full name Durante degli Alighieri, aka Dante Alighieri NULL
World government is necessary for the world... World government must be understood in the sense that it governs mankind on the basis of what all have in common and that by a common law it leads all toward peace.
Government | Law | Mankind | Peace | Sense | World | Government |
Decency is the least of all laws, yet the law which is most strictly observed.
Law |
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals; they supply them or they totally destroy them.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aka FDR
No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.
The commandment of knowledge is yet higher than the commandment over the will: for it is a commandment over the reason, belief, and understanding of man, which is the highest part of the mind, and giveth law to the will itself. For there is no power on earth which setteth up a throne or chair of estate in the spirits and souls of men, and in their cogitations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but knowledge and learning.
Belief | Earth | Knowledge | Law | Learning | Man | Men | Mind | Power | Reason | Understanding | Will |
F.S.C. Northrop, fully Filmer Stuart Cuckow "F.S.C." Northrop
We must root our international law in the living beliefs of all the religions of the world.
Nothing is terrible, except fear itself... revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to week it out... Certainly, in taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon. This is certain, the man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.
Enemy | Fear | Justice | Law | Man | Nature | Nothing | Pardon | Revenge |
Our laws make law impossible; our liberties destroy all freedom; our property is organized robbery; our morality an impudent hypocrisy; our wisdom is administered by inexperienced or mal-experienced dupes; our power wielded by cowards and weaklings; and our honor false in all its points. I am an enemy of the existing order for good reasons.
Destroy | Enemy | Freedom | Good | Honor | Hypocrisy | Law | Morality | Order | Power | Property | Wisdom |
Georg Hegel, fully Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Only that will which obeys law is free; for it obeys itself - it is independent and so free. When the state or our country constitutes a community of existence; when the subjective will of man submits to laws - the contradiction between liberty and necessity vanishes.
Contradiction | Existence | Law | Liberty | Man | Necessity | Will |
Georg Hegel, fully Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Passions, private aims, and the satisfaction of selfish desires, are… most effective springs of action. Their power lies in the fact that they would respect none of the limitations which justice and morality would impose on them; and [they] have a more direct influence over man than the artificial and tedious discipline that tends to order and self-restraint, law and morality.
Action | Aims | Discipline | Influence | Justice | Law | Man | Morality | Order | Power | Respect | Restraint | Self | Respect |