This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Tai-shang Kan-Ying Pien (Treatise of the Exalted One on Response and Retribution) NULL
The recompense of good and evil follows as the shadow follows the figure.
Character | Evil | Good | Recompense |
Pliny the Elder, full name Casus Plinius Secundus NULL
Let honor be to us as strong an obligation as necessity is to others.
Character | Honor | Necessity | Obligation |
Rashi, born Shlomo ben Yitzchok, aka Salomon Isaacides, Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki NULL
The less gratitude you receive for doing a kind act, the greater the value of the act. True kindness is when we do not receive anything in return for what we do.
It’s not the things that can be bought that are life’s richest treasures. It’s priceless little courtesies that money cannot measure. Each little act of graciousness or kindly little favor that fills the heart with gratitude leaves memories to savor.
Character | Gratitude | Heart | Life | Life | Little | Money |
Whatever you have received more than others - in health, in talents, in ability, in success, in a pleasant childhood, in harmonious conditions of home life - all this you must not take to yourself as a matter of course. In gratitude for your good fortune, you must render in return some sacrifice of your own life for another life.
Ability | Character | Childhood | Fortune | Good | Gratitude | Health | Life | Life | Sacrifice | Success |
Even though we personally should do what we can to flee from honor, we still have an obligation to treat other people with honor and respect.
Character | Honor | Obligation | People | Respect |
Janet Erskine Stuart, known as Mother Janet Stuart
We must never try to escape the obligation of living at our best.
Character | Obligation |
Every man has obligation which belong to his station. Duties extend beyond obligations, and direct the affections, desires, and intentions, as well as the actions.
Character | Man | Obligation |
It is not the profession of religion which creates the obligation for the performance of duty; for that existed before any such profession was made. The profession of religion only recognizes the obligation.
Duty | Obligation | Religion | Wisdom |
The moment you can make a very simple discovery, viz., that obligation to God is your privilege, and is not imposed as a burden, your experience will teach you many things - that duty is liberty, that repentance is a release from sorrow, that sacrifice is gain, that humility is dignity, that the truth from that which you hide is a healing element that bathes your disordered life, and that even the penalties and terrors of God are the artillery only to protection to His realm.
Dignity | Discovery | Duty | Experience | God | Humility | Liberty | Life | Life | Obligation | Repentance | Sacrifice | Sorrow | Teach | Truth | Will | Wisdom | God |
Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men, shall we be able to speak of mankind as civilized.
It is well known to all great men, that by conferring an obligation they do not always procure a friend, but are certain of creating many enemies.
Friend | Men | Obligation | Wisdom |
We crave freedom, but freedom is never an end in itself; it is a means to be used for further aims. Its value lies in the extent to which it can assist the development of life. To possess freedom with no life for which to use it is but the bitterest farce. Life never means complete freedom, and every action and relation is an added bond. Life is to be attained, not through a non-moral freedom of caprice, but through a glad welcoming and loyal fulfillment of every bond and obligation which comes in the daily path of life.
Action | Aims | Freedom | Fulfillment | Life | Life | Means | Obligation | Wisdom | Value |