This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury
The best people need afflictions for trial of their virtue. How can we exercise the grace of contentment, if all things succeed well; or that of forgiveness, if we have no enemies?
Character | Contentment | Forgiveness | Grace | Need | People | Virtue | Virtue | Trial |
Jonathan Swift, pen names, M.B. Drapier, Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as we usually find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. A little, and a little, collected together become a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop from an inundation.
How people think, relate and react to their circumstances, not what the circumstances are, is what determines their realities.
Character | Circumstances | People |
Truth is not always the best basis for happiness... There are people who perish when their eyes are open.
Usually people are not envious of someone’s virtues, but of the honor the person receives for his virtues.