This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Bernard Baruch, fully Bernard Mannes Baruch
In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.
Discipline | Freedom | Wisdom |
Henri Bergson, aka Henri-Louis Bergson
We look at change but we do not see it. We speak of change, but we do not think about it. We say that change exists, that everything changes, that change is the very law of things: yes, we say it and we repeat it; but those are only words, and we reason and philosophize as though change did not exist.
Common sense is nature’s gift, but reason is an art.
Ludwig Börne, fully Karl Ludwig Börne
Governments which suppress freedom of speech... act like children who shut their eyes in order not to be seen.
Children | Freedom of speech | Freedom | Order | Speech | Wisdom |
Hal Borland, formally Harold Glen Borland
For all his learning or sophistication, man is still instinctively reaching toward that force beyond. Only arrogance can deny its existence and the denial falters in the face of evidence on every hand. In every tuft of grass, in every bird, in every opening bud, there it is.
Arrogance | Evidence | Existence | Force | Learning | Man | Wisdom |
All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it.
Experience | Freedom | Will | Wisdom |
Love delights in paradoxes. Saddest when it has most reason to be gay, sights are the signs of its greatest joy, and silence is the expression of its yearning tenderness.
Ernest Bramah, born Ernest Brammah Smith
A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment.
Conduct | Reputation | Wisdom |
People have generally three epochs in their confidence in man. In the first they believe him to be everything that is good, and they are lavish with their friendship and confidence. In the next, they have had experience, which has smitten down their confidence, and they; then have to be careful not to mistrust every one, and to put the worst construction upon everything. Later in life, they learn that the greater number of men have much; more good in them than bad, and that even when there is cause to blame, there is more reason to pity than condemn; and then a spirit of confidence again awakens within them.
Blame | Cause | Confidence | Experience | Good | Life | Life | Man | Men | Mistrust | People | Pity | Reason | Spirit | Wisdom | Friendship | Learn |
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, fully Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton
Philosophers have done wisely when they have told us to cultivate our reason rather than our feelings, for reason reconciles us to the daily things of existence; our feelings teach us to yearn after the far, the difficult, the unseen.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, fully Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton
Political freedom is, or ought to be, the best guaranty for the safety and continuance of spiritual, mental, and civil freedom. It is the combination of numbers to secure the liberty to each one.