This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
If appeasing our enemies is not the answer, neither is hating them... Somewhere between the extremes of appeasement and hate there is a place for courage and strength to express themselves in magnanimity and charity, and this is the place we must find.
Charity | Courage | Hate | Magnanimity | Strength |
Anne Frank, fully Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank
How true Daddy’s words were when he said: “All children must look after their own upbringing.” Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.
Advice | Character | Children | Good | Parents | Right | Words |
The blind are more understanding than the deaf because hearing exerts a direct influence on the formation of moral character, which is not immediately true of what is seen. The human soul can also become diffused by way of the eye whereas what is heard results in focus and concentration.
Character | Focus | Influence | Soul | Understanding |
Unwelcome are the loiterer, who makes appointments he never keeps; the consulter, who asks advice he never follows; the boaster, who seeks for praise he does not merit; the complainer, who whines only to be pitied; the talker, who talks only because he loves to talk always; the profane and obscene jester, whose words defile; the drunkard, whose insanity has tot the better of his reason; and the tobacco-chewer and smoker, who poisons the atmosphere and nauseates others.
Advice | Better | Insanity | Merit | Praise | Reason | Words |
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Know how to use your enemies. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
The profoundly wise do not declaim against superficial knowledge in others, so much as the profoundly ignorant; on the contrary, they would rather assist it with their advice that overwhelm it with their contempt; for they know that there was a period when even a Bacon or a Newton were superficial, and that he who has little knowledge is far more likely to get more that has none.
When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.
Some men are more beholden to their bitterest enemies than to friends who appear to be sweetness itself. The former frequently tell the truth, but the latter never.
He that openly tells his friends all that he thinks of them, must expect that they will secretly tell his enemies much that they do not think of him.
When we feel a strong desire to thrust our advice upon others, it is usually because we suspect their weakness; but we ought rather to suspect our own.
The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.
Race |
The reason why great men meet with so little pity or attachment in adversity, would seem to be this: the friends of a great man were made by his fortune, his enemies by himself, and revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude.
Adversity | Fortune | Gratitude | Little | Man | Men | Pity | Reason | Revenge | Friends |