This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.
Ovid, formally Publius Ovidius Naso NULL
By habit love enters the mind; by habit is love unlearnt.
Plutarch, named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after becoming Roman citizen NULL
As small letters hurt the sight, so do small matters him that is too much intent upon them: they vex and stir up anger, which begets an evil habit in him in reference to greater affairs.
Quentin Crisp, born Denis Charles Pratt
I still lived in the future--a habit which is the death of happiness.
The poet's habit of living should be set on a key so low that the common influences should delight him.
Habit |
It is the property of the religious spirit to be the most refining of all influences. No external advantages, no culture of the tastes, no habit of command, no association with the elegant, or even depth of affection, can bestow that delicacy and that grandeur of bearing which belong only to the mind accustomed to celestial conversation, all else is but gilt and cosmetics, beside this, as expressed in every look and gesture.
Association | Conversation | Culture | Habit | Mind | Property | Spirit | Association |
Philip Sidney, fully Sir Philip Sidney
As in labor, the more one doth exercise, the more one is enabled to do, strength growing upon work; so, with the use of suffering, men’s minds get the habit of suffering, and all fears and terrors are to them but as a summons to battle, whereof they know beforehand they shall come off victorious.
Battle | Habit | Labor | Men | Strength | Suffering | Work |
Of evils current upon earth, the worst is money. It is money that sacks cities, and drives men forth from hearth and home; warps and seduces native innocence, and breeds a habit of dishonesty.
One habit overcomes another.
Habit |
It has become a kind of habit to look at things with the intention of getting something. We call it “pragmatism,” and we say that the truth is something that pays. If we meditate in order to get to the truth, it seems we will be well paid. In meditation, we stop, and we look deeply. We stop just to be there, to be with ourselves and with the world. When we are capable of stopping, we begin to see and, if we can see, we understand. Peace and happiness are the fruit of this process. We should master the art of stopping in order to really be with our friend and with the flower.
Art | Friend | Habit | Intention | Meditation | Order | Peace | Pragmatism | Truth | Will | World | Art | Happiness |
Opinion's but a fool, that makes us scan the outward habit by the inward man.
Colin Powell, fully Colin Luther Powell
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
Excellence | Habit | Little | Excellence |