This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
When a man does a noble act, date him from that. Forget his faults. Let his noble act be the standpoint from which you regard him.
Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face.
Sorrow comes soon enough without despondency. It does a man no good to carry around a lightning-rod to attract trouble.
As a remedy against all ills - poverty, sickness, and melancholy - only one thing is absolutely necessary: a liking for work.
Character | Melancholy | Poverty | Work |
There may be some tenderness in the conscience and yet the will be a very stone; and as long as the will stands out, there is no broken heart.
Character | Conscience | Heart | Tenderness | Will |
Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and a vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.
Body | Character | Fame | Fortune | Judgment | Life | Life | Oblivion | Perception | Soul | Time |