This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. and if we perceive no evident change and improvement, it would be better to leave it alone; learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it be wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use.
Better | Change | Character | Giving | Improvement | Learning | Mind |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
There is no existence that is constant, either of our being or of that of objects. And we, and our judgment, and all mortal things go on flowing and rolling unceasingly. Thus nothing certain can be established about one thing by another, both the judging and the judged being in continual change and motion.
Change | Character | Existence | Judgment | Mortal | Nothing |
Dreamers and doers - the world, generally divides men into those two general classifications, but the world is often wrong. There are men who win the admiration and respect of their fellowmen. They are the men worth while. Dreaming is just another name for thinking, planning, devising - another way of saying that a man exercises his soul. A steadfast soul, holding steadily to a dream ideal, plus a sturdy will determined to succeed in any venture, can make any dream come true. Use your mind and your will. They work together for you beautifully if you'll only give them a chance.
Admiration | Chance | Character | Man | Men | Mind | Respect | Soul | Thinking | Will | Work | World | Worth | Wrong | Respect |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Do you not see that this world keeps its sight all concentrated inward and its eyes open to contemplate itself? It is always vanity for you, within and without; but it is less vanity, when it is less extensive.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
The world is nothing but variety and dissimilarity; but vices are all alike, insomuch as they are all vices.
He who attempts to act and do things for others and for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity, and capacity to love, will not have anything to give to others. He will communicate to them only the contagion of his own obsessions, his aggressiveness, his ego-centered ambitions, his delusions about ends and means, and his doctrinaire prejudices and ideas.
Capacity | Character | Ego | Ends | Freedom | Ideas | Integrity | Love | Means | Self | Understanding | Will | World |
Everyone in the world from the most successful to the least needs encouragement. Make it your career to give others encouragement.
The foundations of the world will be shaky until the moral props are restored.
We must not, therefore, wonder whether we really perceive a world, we must instead say: the world is what we perceive... To seek the essence of perception is to declare that perception is, not presumed true, but defined as access to truth.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
The way of the world is to make laws, but follow customs.
What is then liberty? To be born is at once to be born in the world and to the world. The world is already constituted, but never completely. Under the first rapport, we are solicited, under the second we are open to an infinity of possibilities. But this analysis is still abstract, because we exist under these two relations at once. There is therefore never determinism and never absolute choice; I am never a thing and never naked consciousness.
Absolute | Abstract | Character | Choice | Consciousness | Liberty | Wisdom | World |
Alberto Moravia, Pen name of Alberto Pincherle
Modern man - whether in the womb of the masses, or with his workmates, or with his family, or alone - can never for one moment forget that he is living in a world in which he is a means and whose end is not his business.