This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville
A brilliant achievement may win for you the favor of a people at one stroke; but to earn the love and respect of the population that surrounds you, a long succession of little services rendered and of obscure good deeds, a constant habit of kindness and an established reputation for disinterestedness will be required.
Achievement | Deeds | Good | Habit | Kindness | Little | Love | People | Reputation | Respect | Will | Respect |
The future is big with every possibility of achievement and of tragedy.
Achievement | Future | Tragedy |
It is not possessions but the desires of mankind which require to be equalized.
Mankind | Possessions |
Every state is a community of some kind, and every community is established with a view to some good; for mankind always act in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.
It is not the possessions but the desires of mankind which require to be equalized.
Mankind | Possessions |
The man who believes firmly that the Creator of the universe loves him and cares infinitely what he dose with his life - this man is automatically freed from much of the self-distrust that afflicts less certain men. Fear, guilt, hostility, anger - these are the emotions that stifle thought and impede action. By reducing or eliminating them, religious faith makes boldness possible, and boldness makes achievement possible.
Achievement | Action | Anger | Boldness | Distrust | Emotions | Faith | Fear | Guilt | Life | Life | Man | Men | Self | Thought | Universe | Thought |
Life's greatest achievement is the continual remaking of yourself so that at last you know how to live.
Achievement | Life | Life |
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
If mankind cannot now bring itself at last to live as one family, the penalty, in our new situation, must be genocide sooner or later.
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Human dignity… can be achieved only in the field of ethics, and ethical achievement is measured by the degree in which our actions are governed by compassion and love, not by greed and aggressiveness.
Achievement | Compassion | Dignity | Ethics | Greed | Love |
Arnold J. Toynbee, fully Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Human dignity...can be achieved only in the field of ethics, and ethical achievement is measured by the degree in which our actions are governed by compassion and love, not by greed and aggressiveness.
Achievement | Compassion | Dignity | Ethics | Greed | Love |
One man is more concerned with the impression he makes on the rest of mankind, another with the impression the rest of mankind makes on him. The disposition of the first is subjective, of the second objective. The one is, in the whole of his existence, more in the nature of an idea which is merely presented, the other more of the being who presents it.
Most do violence to their natural aptitude, and thus attain superiority in nothing.
Aptitude | Nothing | Superiority |
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum
Man - every man - is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others. He must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing other to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.
Achievement | Ends | Life | Life | Man | Means | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Self-interest | Work | Happiness |
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum
The most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the United States of America was the subordination of society to moral law.
Achievement | Law | Moral law | Society | Society |
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
A man can know nothing of mankind without knowing something of himself. Self-knowledge is the property of that man whose passions have their full play, but who ponders over their results.
Knowing | Knowledge | Man | Mankind | Nothing | Play | Property | Self | Self-knowledge |
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Knowledge of mankind is knowledge of their passions.