This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
One is never as fortunate or as unfortunate as one thinks.
Honor |
Duke Ellington, fully Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
A goal is a dream with a finish line.
Our rash faults Make trivial price of serious thing we have, Not knowing them until we know their grave. All's Well That Ends Well (King of France at V, iii)
PETRUCHIO: Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry. KATHERINE: If I be waspish, best beware my sting. PETRUCHIO: My remedy is then, to pluck it out. Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies. Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail. KATHERINE: In his tongue. PETRUCHIO: Whose tongue? KATHERINE: Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell. PETRUCHIO: What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.
Honor |
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough, but riches fineless is as poor as winter to him that ever fears he shall be poor. Good god, the souls of all my tribe defend from jealousy! Othello the Moor of Venice (Iago at III, iii)
Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban
These four qualifications characterize the greatest virtue of a woman. No woman can afford to be without them. In fact they are very easy to possess if a woman only treasure them in her heart. The ancients had a saying: "Is love afar off? If I desire love, then love is at hand!" So can it be said of these qualifications.
Heaven | Honor | Husband | Important | Individual | Man | Wife | Yielding |
Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya
To subordinate private interests to the public good--that is the path of a vassal. Now if a man is influenced by private motives, he will be resentful, and if he is influenced by resentment he will fail to act harmoniously with others. If he fails to act harmoniously with others, the public interest will suffer. Resentment interferes with order and is subversive of law.
Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya
Decisions on important matters should not be made by one person alone. They should be discussed with many people. Small matters are of less consequence and it is unnecessary to consult a number of people. It is only in the case of important affairs, when there is a suspicion that they may miscarry, that one should consult with others, so as to arrive at the right conclusion.
Circumstances | Law | Man | Will |
Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban
Now the wives of the husband’s elder brothers and his younger sister are equal in status; while they may be no bond of affection, they have become close relatives by duty. Now a pure and gentle, modest and obedient person will by adhering to duty be able to create a deep friendship and to extend affection to obtain their help. As a result, her excellence and beauty will be brilliantly displayed, her faults and defects will be concealed and hidden, her parent-in-law will cherish and commend her, her husband and master will laud and praise her, and her reputation will shine in town and village, its great glory extending to her father and mother… This is the root of glory or dishonor, the basis of fame or infamy. Of course you have to be circumspect!
Devotion | Esteem | Firmness | Honor | Important | Nothing | Respect | Respect |
Eldridge Cleaver, fully Leroy Eldridge Cleaver
The white youth of today have begun to react to the fact that the American Way of Life is a fossil of history. What do they care if their old baldheaded and crew-cut elders don't dig their caveman mops? They couldn't care less about the old, stiff-assed honkies who don't like their new dances: Frog, Monkey, Jerk, Swim, Watusi. All they know is that it feels good to swing to way-out body-rhythms instead of dragging across the dance floor like zombies to the dead beat of mind-smothered Mickey Mouse music.
When a teacher of the future comes to point out to the youth of America how the highest rewards of intellect and devotion can be gained, he may say to them, not by subtlety and intrigue not by wire pulling and demagoguery not by the arts of popularity not by skill and shiftiness in following expediency but by being firm in devotion to the principles of manhood and the application of morals and the courage of righteousness in the public life of our country by being a man without guile and without fear, without selfishness, and with devotion to duty, devotion to his country.
Better | Character | Evil | Folly | Government | Ignorance | Indifference | Indolence | Knowledge | Law | Life | Life | Little | Mind | Nature | Responsibility | Suffering | Time | World | Wrong | Government |
Eleazar ha-Kappar, alternate spelling Eliezer ha-Kappar
The born are destined to die, the dead to be brought to life, and the living to be judged; It is, therefore, for them to know and to make known, so that it becomes known, that He is God, He the fashioner, He the creator, He the discerner, He the judge, He the witness, He the complainant. And that He is of a certainty to judge, blessed be He, before whom there is no unrighteousness, nor forgetting, nor disrespect of persons, nor taking of bribes, for all is His. Know that all is according to the reckoning and let not your [evil] inclination (yetzer ha-rah) assure you that the grave is a place of refuge for you; for without your will were you fashioned, without your will were you born, without your will do you live, without your will you will die, and without your will are you, of a certainty, to give an account and reckoning before the King of the kings of kings, blessed be He.
I observe that there are two entirely different theories according to which individual men seek to get on in the world. One theory leads a man to pull down everybody around him in order to climb up on them to a higher place. The other leads a man to help everybody around him in order that he may go up with them.
Intelligence | Law | Understanding | Will | Friends | Understand |
Elizabeth Dole, fully Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford "Liddy" Dole
In liberating Iraq, we have rid the nation and the rest of the world from the danger of Saddam Hussein.
Character | Children | Compassion | Honor | Life | Life | Will |
She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd; she is a woman, therefore may be won; she is Lavinia, therefore must be lov'd. What, man! more water glideth by the mill than wots the miller of; and easy it is of a cut loaf to steal a shive.