This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Nahuatl Wise Men including Nezahualcoyotl NULL
One day we must go, one night we will descend into the region of mystery. Here, we only come to know ourselves; only in passing are we here on earth. In peace and pleasure let us spend our lives; come let us enjoy ourselves. Let not the angry do so; the earth is vast indeed! Would that one lived forever; would that one were not to die!
Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new, sweet earth, and the Great Silence alone!
A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent.
The pleasure of sin is of short duration… It operates on a law of diminishing returns. The more often it is repeated, the more familiar with its face, the less pleasure sin gives.
Sin is disappointing. Whoever got out of sin half as much pleasure as he expected?
People who know they are terminally ill often seem to live more meaningfully. Though dying, they somehow are more alive. They cherish each morning and are vividly aware of each day’s passing. They see despair as a self-indulgent waste, and they have no time to waste.
Moral indignation is in most cases 2 percent moral, 48 percent indignation and 50 percent envy.
Envy | Indignation |
I lose God, I lose the world, I lose myself, if I want only to clutch at things and use them only for my own pleasure or profit.
There is a difference between happiness and enjoyment. Happiness is the result of pursuing a goal. Pursuit of the goal generates an energizing sense of purpose. Enjoyment, on the other hand, is an immediate sensation of pleasure; a person can enjoy a piece of cake, a piece of art, a good joke – it gives pleasure but then passes.
Art | Enjoyment | Good | Pleasure | Purpose | Purpose | Sense | Happiness |
T’ai-p’ing-ching [Classic of the Highest Peace or Book of Supreme Peace] by Yü Chi NULL
Of all the love, kindness and pleasure a man can experience in this world, nothing is more beautiful than the love of a woman. If it is granted him, and the two have a child together, they are fused in a single heart in the child, which is truly the most pleasing thing love and kindness can give, and this will always be a bond between them.
Experience | Heart | Kindness | Love | Man | Nothing | Pleasure | Will | Woman | World | Child |