This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, aka Rabbi Avraham Maimuni, aka Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha-Rambam NULL
Be careful not to consider yourself wicked. A person who considers himself wicked will not try to improve and is likely to become worse than he is now.
If men would wound you with injuries, meet them with patience: hasty words rankle the wound, soft language, dresses it, forgiveness cures it, and oblivion takes away the scar. It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.
Argument | Character | Forgiveness | Language | Men | Oblivion | Patience | Silence | Words | Forgiveness |
Matsuo Bashō, born Matsuo Kinsaku, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provisions which we can make of the goods of fortune.
Character | Discipline | Enjoyment | Fortune | Heart | Knowledge | Mind | Principles |
Having no soul union with other men can be the most damaging wound of all.
Nature thrives on patience; man on impatience.
William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker
A man without religion or spiritual vision is like a captain who finds himself in the midst of an uncharted sea, without compass, rudder and steering wheel. He never knows where he is, which way he is going and where he is going to land.