This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
There is no right without parallel duty, no liberty without the supremacy of the law, no high destiny without earnest perseverance, no greatness without self-denial.
Character | Destiny | Duty | Greatness | Law | Liberty | Perseverance | Right | Self | Self-denial |
Yeruchem Levovitz, aka The Mashgiach
When unable to fulfill a specific desire, we tend to exaggerate its importance for our happiness... Become aware of your tendency to consider something more important than it really is when you lack it.
It is a common sense and self-interest to refrain from lashing out immediately to avenge an injury. A higher level of humanity is entirely overcoming feelings of vengeance in one’s heart. This is the glory of the morally wise man.
Character | Common Sense | Feelings | Glory | Heart | Humanity | Man | Self | Self-interest | Sense | Vengeance | Wise |
It is as wise to moderate our belief as our desires.
He who gives himself airs of importance exhibits the credentials of impotence.
Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin NULL
A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
A wise man is not wise in everything.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
In truth, knowledge is a great and very useful quality; those who despise it give evidence enough of their stupidity. But yet I do not set its value at that extreme measure that some attribute to it, like Herillus the philosopher, who placed in it the sovereign good, and held that it was in its power to make us wise and content. That I do not believe, nor what others have said, that knowledge is the mother of all virtue, and all vice is produced by ignorance. If that is true, it is subject to a long interpretation.
Character | Despise | Enough | Evidence | Extreme | Good | Ignorance | Knowledge | Mother | Power | Stupidity | Truth | Virtue | Virtue | Wise | Value | Vice |
The greatest danger that faces this country is the danger of moral lassitude - liberty turned to license, rights demanded and duties shirked, the moral sense deteriorating, the traditions and standards of the nation weakened, the spiritual forces within it losing ground.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
A strong imagination begetteth opportunity, say the wise men.
Character | Imagination | Men | Opportunity | Wise |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
A man must become wise at this own expense.