This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Compassion is an emotion of which we should never be ashamed." - Hugh Blair
"Dissimulation in youth is the forerunner of perfidy in old age; its first appearance is the fatal omen of growing depravity and future shame. It degrades parts and learning obscures the luster of every accomplishment and sinks us into contempt. The path of falsehood is a perplexing maze. After the first departure from sincerity, it is not in our power to stop; one artifice unavoidably leads on to another, till, as the intricacy of the labyrinth increases, we are left entangled in our snare." - Hugh Blair
"Gentleness, which belongs to virtue, is to be carefully distinguished from the mean spirit of cowards and the fawning assent of sycophants." - Hugh Blair
"Graceful, particularly in youth, is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of woe; we should not permit ease and indulgence to contract our affections, and wrap us up in selfish enjoyment. But we should accustom ourselves to think of the distresses of human life, of the solitary cottage, the dying parent, and the weeping orphan. Nor ought we ever to sport with pain and distress in any of our amusements, or treat even the meanest insect with wanton cruelty." - Hugh Blair
"In the eye of that Supreme Being to whom our whole internal frame is uncovered, dispositions hold the place of actions." - Hugh Blair
"In vain we attempt to clear our conscience by affecting to compensate for fraud or cruelty by acts of strict religious homage towards God." - Hugh Blair
"Industry is not only the instrument of improvement, but the foundation of pleasure. He who is a stranger to it may possess, but cannot enjoy; for it is labor only which gives relish to pleasure. It is the appointed vehicle of every good to man. It is the indispensable condition of possessing a sound mind in a sound body." - Hugh Blair
"Life will frequently languish, even in the hands of the busy if they have some employment subsidiary to that which forms their main pursuit." - Hugh Blair
"Nothing leads more directly to the breach of charity, and to the injury and molestation of our fellow-creatures than the indulgence of an ill temper." - Hugh Blair
"Nothing, except what flows from the heart, can render even external manners truly pleasing." - Hugh Blair
"People first abandon reason, and then become obstinate; and the deeper they are in error the more angry they are." - Hugh Blair
"Pride makes us esteem ourselves; vanity makes us desire the esteem of others." - Hugh Blair
"Sentiment and principle are often mistaken for each other, though, in fact, they widely differ. Sentiment is the virtue of ideas; principle the virtue of action. Sentiment has its seat in the had; principle, in the heart. Sentiment suggest fine harangues and subtle distinctions; principle conceives just notions, and performs good actions in consequence of them. Sentiment refines away the simplicity of truth, and the plainness of piety; and "gives us virtue in words, and vice in deeds."" - Hugh Blair
"Such is the infatuation of self-love, that, though in general doctrine of the vanity world all men agree, yet almost everyone flatters himself that his own case is to be an exception from the common rule." - Hugh Blair
"That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provisions which we can make of the goods of fortune." - Hugh Blair
"The fatal fondness of indulging in a spirit of ridicule, and the injurious and irreparable consequences which sometimes attend the too severe reply, can never be condemned with more asperity than it deserves. Not to offend is the first step towards pleasing. To give pain is as much an offence against humanity as against good-breeding, and surely it is as well to abstain from an action because it is sinful, as because it is unpolite." - Hugh Blair
"The prevailing manners of an age depend, more than we are aware of, or are willing to allow, on the conduct of the women: this is one of the principal things on which the great machine of human society turns." - Hugh Blair
"The spirit of true religion breathes gentleness and affability; it gives a native, unaffected ease to the behavior; it is social, kind, cheerful; far removed from the cloudy and illiberal disposition which clouds the brow, sharpens the temper, and dejects the spirit." - Hugh Blair
"Willingness to be taught what we do not know, is the sure pledge of growth both in knowledge and wisdom." - Hugh Blair
"A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent." - William Blake
"Contracting our Infinite sense we behold Multitude, or expanding we behold as one." - William Blake
"He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence." - William Blake
"If a fool would persist in his folly he would become wise." - William Blake
"If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." - William Blake
"Innocence dwells with wisdom, but never with ignorance." - William Blake
"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend." - William Blake
"Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires." - William Blake
"The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship." - William Blake
"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind." - William Blake
"The most sublime act is to set another before you." - William Blake
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough." - William Blake
"The voice of the Devil. All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following errors: 1. That man has two real existing principles; vis; a body and a soul. 2. That energy, called evil, is alone from body, and that reason, called good, is alone from the soul. 3. That God will torment man in eternity for the following energies. But the following contraries to these are true: 1. Man has no body distinct from his soul; for that called body is a portion of soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of the soul in this age. 2. Energy is the only life, and is from the body; and reason is bound or outward circumference of energy. 3. Energy is eternal delight." - William Blake
"The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the vegetated body. This world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation, of vegetation, is finite and temporal. There exist in that eternal world the permanent realities of everything which we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature." - William Blake
"A person ruled by his negative emotions will not be able to think straight." - Yitzchok Blauser, aka Reb Itzelle Peterburger
"A truth-seeker will not check to see if a person who admonished him is worthy or not. Rather, he weighs the complaint to see if it is valid or not." - Yitzchok Blauser, aka Reb Itzelle Peterburger
"What difference does it make if this person is or is not aware of what I know?" - Yitzchok Blauser, aka Reb Itzelle Peterburger
"A woman’s head is always influenced by her heart; but a man’s heart is always influenced by his head." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"Concealed griefs are the most consuming, as secret maladies are the most fatal." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"Friends are the thermometers by which we may judge the temperature of our fortunes." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"Mediocrity is beneath a brave soul." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our buried hopes." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which submits." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"There is no knowledge for which so great a price is paid as a knowledge of the world; and no one ever became an adept in it except at the expense of a hardened or a wounded heart." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"Those can most easily dispense with society who are the most calculated to adorn it; they only are dependent on it who possess no mental resources, for though they bring nothing to the general mart, like beggars, they are too poor to stay at home." - Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, Lady Blessington, born Margaret Power
"Perhaps the most important lesson the world has learned in the past fifty years is that it is not true that "human nature is unchangeable."" - Bruce Bliven
"It is a fundamental principle that no person can entirely free himself from taking the people in his environment into consideration. When doing something in the presence of others, it is impossible not to think about how other people will view what you are doing... Any good act you do will be much purer if others are not aware of you." - Yosef Leib Bloch, fully R' Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch
"Keep your focus on what you do have. Only then can you be truly happy." - Yosef Leib Bloch, fully R' Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch
"Try to become as great as you can. Some people are afraid to accomplish because they might make mistakes and those mistakes will be more serious than if they remained simple. This is not valid reasoning. Each person is obligated to develop himself to the best of his ability. The smallest person has potential for greatness if he utilizes all that is within him." - Yosef Leib Bloch, fully R' Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch
"Young people imagine there is great value in fame. Those with life experience know that in truth publicity is extremely short-lived. The nature of the world is that every piece of news makes an impression for only a very short time. After those few minutes the impression is erased and quickly forgotten. It is as if it never was." - Yosef Leib Bloch, fully R' Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch