This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
If chance is defined as an event produced by random motion without any causal nexus, I would say there is no such thing as chance.
The best men are not those who have waited for chances but who have taken them; besieged the chance; conquered the chance; and made chance the servitor.
It is strictly and philosophically true in Nature and reason that there is no such thing as chance or accident; it being evident that these words do not signify anything really existing, anything that is truly an agent ore the cause of any event; but they signify merely men’s ignorance of the real and immediate cause.
Accident | Cause | Chance | Ignorance | Men | Nature | Reason | Wisdom | Words |
Calvin Coolidge, fully John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.
The essence of our effort to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each an equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different - to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit he or she possesses.
Body | Chance | Effort | Mind | Opportunity | Spirit | Unique | Wisdom | Child |
S. I. Hayakawa, fully Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa
It is the individual who knows how little he knows about himself who stands a chance of finding something about himself before he dies.
Chance | Individual | Little | Wisdom |
Thomas Haliburton, fully Thomas Chandler Haliburton, pseudonym "Sam Slick"
Give me a chance, says Stupid, and I will show you. Ten to one he has had his chance already, and neglected it.
It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles. Nature seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of art, with which it would rear dullness to maturity; and to glory in the vigor and luxuriance of her chance productions. She scatters the seeds of genius to the winds, and though some may perish among the stony places of the world, and some may be choked by the thorns and brambles of early adversity, yet others will now and then strike root even in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into sunshine, and spread over their sterile birthplace all the beauties of vegetation.
Chance | Genius | Glory | Nature | Struggle | Will | Wisdom |
The medical profession tells us that there are four conditions which must be met if we are to have any chance of leading a happy life: physical security, social recognition, adventure, emotional security. In today's highly technical and scientific life, these four considerations become increasingly important, but we should add one vital ingredient: love. Love of our fellow man, love for our work, and the conviction that this love insures the future for all of us.
Adventure | Chance | Future | Happy | Important | Life | Life | Love | Man | Security | Wisdom | Work |
Charles F. Kettering, fully Charles Franklin Kettering
You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.
Time and chance reveal all secrets.
Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon
I seek the Presidency not because it offers me a change to be somebody but because it offers a chance to do something.
Demean thyself more warily in thy study than in the street. If thy public actions have a hundred witnesses, thy private have a thousand. The multitude looks but upon thy actions; thy conscience looks into them: the multitude may chance to excuse thee, if not acquire thee; thy conscience will accuse thee, if not condemn thee.
Chance | Conscience | Looks | Public | Study | Will | Wisdom |
George Augustus Sala, fully George Augustus Henry Sala
Esteem is the harvest of a whole life spent in usefulness; but reputation is often bestowed upon a chance action, and depends most on success.
Action | Chance | Esteem | Life | Life | Reputation | Success | Usefulness | Wisdom |