This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
There is a serious defect in the thinking of someone who wants - more than anything else - to become rich. As long as they don't have the money, it will seem like a worthwhile goal. Once they do, they will understand how important other things are - and have always been.
Important | Money | Thinking | Wants | Will | Wisdom | Understand |
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, fully Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton
Refuse to be ill. Never tell people you are ill; never own it to yourself. Illness is one of those things which a man should resist on principle at the onset.
Richard Francis Burton, fully Sir Richard Francis Burton
Every other sin hath some pleasures annexed to it, or will admit of some excuse, but envy wants both. We should strive against it, for if indulged in it will be to us as a foretaste of hell upon earth.
The public buys its opinions as it buys its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.
It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.
Bette Davis, Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis
The person who wants to make it has to sweat. There are no short cuts. And you've got to have the guts to be hated.
G. K. Chesterton, fully Gilbert Keith Chesterton
There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.
The first principle asserts that at least some mental events interact causally with physical events... The second principle is that where there is causality, there must be a law: events related as cause and effect fall under strict deterministic laws... The third principle is that there are no strict deterministic laws on the basis of which mental events can be predicted and explained... from the fact that there can be no strict psychophysical laws, and without our other two principles, we can infer the truth of a version of the identity theory, that is, a theory that identifies at least some mental events with physical events.
The benefit of proverbs, or maxims, is that they separate those who act on principle from those who act on impulse; and they lead to promptness and decision in acting. Their value deepens on four things; do they embody correct principles; are they on important subjects; what is the extent, and what is the ease of their application?
Decision | Important | Impulse | Maxims | Principles | Promptness | Proverbs | Wisdom | Value |
But little is accomplished, because but little is vigorously attempted, because difficulties are magnified. A timorously cautious spirit, so far from acting with resolution, will never think itself in possession of the preliminaries for acting at all. Perhaps perseverance has been the radical principle of every truly great character.
Character | Little | Perseverance | Resolution | Spirit | Will | Wisdom | Think |
Beauty is at once the ultimate principle and the highest aim of art.
No principle is more noble, as there is none more holy, than that of a true obedience.