This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
Books are the food of youth, the delight of old age; the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity; a delight at home, and no hindrance abroad; companions by night, in traveling, in the country.
Adversity | Age | Books | Comfort | Old age | Prosperity | Youth | Old |
Maimonides, given name Moses ben Maimon or Moshe ben Maimon, known as "Rambam" NULL
When the perfect man is... near death, his knowledge increases mightily... and his love for the object of his knowledge becomes more intense, and it is in this great delight that his soul separates from his body.
Mencius, born Meng Ke or Ko NULL
There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.
Meister Eckhart, formally Meister von Hochheim
Any flea as it is in God is nobler than the highest of angels in himself.
We cannot part with our friends. We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. We are idolaters of the old. We do not believe in the richness of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence.
Angels | Eternity | Omnipresence | Soul |
The poet's habit of living should be set on a key so low that the common influences should delight him.
Habit |
The peril of every fine faculty is the delight of playing with it for pride. Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief. Talent is mistaken for genius, a dogma or system for truth, ambition for greatest, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art.
Ambition | Art | Character | Dogma | Genius | Ingenuity | Peril | Poetry | Pride | Sensuality | System | Truth | Talent | Ambition | Ingenuity |
Walter Raleigh, fully Sir Walter Raleigh
Take special care for that thou delight not in wine; for there never was any man who came to honor, or preferment that loved it; for it transformeth a man into a beast, decayeth health, poisoneth the breath, destroyeth natural heat, brings a man’s stomach to an artificial heat, deformeth the face, rotteth the teeth, and to conclude, maketh a man contemptible, soon old, and despised of all wise and worth men; hated in thy servants, in thyself, and companions; for it is a bewitching and infectious vice.
The spiritual life is nothing else but the working of the Spirit of God within us, and therefore our own silence must be a great part of our preparation for it, and much speaking or delight in it will often no small hindrance of that good which we can only have from hearing what the Spirit and voice of God speaketh within us.
God | Good | Life | Life | Nothing | Silence | Spirit | Will | God |
Fred Rogers, "Mister Rogers," born Frederick McFeely Rogers
The thing I remember best about successful people I've met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they're doing, and they love it in front of others.