This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Imagination cannot makes fools wise; but she can make them happy, to the envy of reason, who can only make her friends miserable.
The only things in which we can be said to have any property are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison; they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken away by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we cannot say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world.
Calamity | Death | Disease | Good | Grave | Health | Malice | Misfortune | Nothing | Property | Reputation | Respect | Riches | World | Riches | Respect | Friends |
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.
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 |
Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.
Friends |
The only kind office performed for us by our friends of which we never complain is our funeral; and the only thing which we most want, happens to the be the only thing we never purchase - our coffin.
Each day, say ‘thank you’ for being alive. Each day, take responsibility for your physical performance. Each day, be careful of human nature [your own and others’]. Each day, behold the wonder of Mother nature.
Day | Human nature | Mother | Nature | Responsibility | Wonder |
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
The Master said... 'Have no friends not equal to yourself'....The Master said, 'The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort'... The Master said, 'It is only the wisest and the very stupidest who cannot change.'... Being true to oneself is the law of God. To try to be true to oneself is the law of man.
Change | Comfort | God | Law | Man | Virtue | Virtue | Friends |
If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love our friends for their sake rather than our own.
Confucius, aka Kong Qiu, Zhongni, K'ung Fu-tzu or Kong Fuzi NULL
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
Friends |
In prosperity friends do not leave you unless desired, whereas in adversity they stay away of their own accord.
Adversity | Prosperity | Friends |
Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey
I know men and women can banish worry, fear and various kinds of illnesses, and can transform their lives by changing their thoughts. I know! I know! I know! I have seen such incredible transformations performed hundreds of times. I have seen them so often that I no longer wonder at them.
Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL
Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has any one who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth, any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.
Cause | Fear | Freedom | Habit | Sincerity | Truth | Wonder |