This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Morality may consist solely in the courage of making a choice." - Léon Blum, fully André Léon Blum
"Sociability is the art of unlearning to be preoccupied with yourself." - Otto Blumenthal
"Having no soul union with other men can be the most damaging wound of all." - Robert Bly
"Every part of our personality that we do not love will become hostile to us." - Robert Bly
"We walk, and our religion is shown (even in the dullest and most insensitive person) in how we walk. Or to put it more accurately, living in this world means choosing, choosing to walk, and the way we choose to walk is infallibly and perfectly expressed in the walk itself. Nothing can disguise it. The walk of an ordinary man and of an enlightened man are as different as that of a snake and a giraffe." - R. H. Blyth, fully Reginald Horace Blyth
"Zen is the unsymbolism of the world." - R. H. Blyth, fully Reginald Horace Blyth
"Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny." - George Dana Boardman "The Younger"
"The law of the harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny." - George Dana Boardman "The Younger"
"Wit is a treacherous dart. It is perhaps the only weapon with which it is possible to stab oneself in one's own back." - Geoffrey Bocca
"It is our duty to give meaning to the life of future generations by sharing our knowledge and experience; by teaching an appreciation of work well done and a respect for nature, the source of all life; by encouraging the young to venture off the beaten path and avoid complacency by challenging their emotions." - Paul Bocuse
"Idleness is the canker of the mind." - John Bodenham
"Give up the notion that there is a final state to attain. Spiritual life consists of ongoing practice undertaken as a lifetime work. This realization breeds humility, especially when we realize that in our initial infatuation with enlightenment, we underestimate the amount of inner work necessary to free us from our addictive patterns of thought and behavior." - Stephan Bodian
"My poor are my best patients. God pays for them." - Hermann Boerhaave
"The great seal of truth is simplicity." - Hermann Boerhaave
"An hour spent in hate is an eternity withdrawn from love." - Ludwig Börne, fully Karl Ludwig Börne
"Habit is a hard mistress." - Ludwig Börne, fully Karl Ludwig Börne
"Most people are dissatisfied, because too few know that the distance between one and nothing is greater than that between one and a thousand." - Ludwig Börne, fully Karl Ludwig Börne
"You may dispute principles, not experiences." - Ludwig Börne, fully Karl Ludwig Börne
"You must learn to know others in order to know yourself." - Ludwig Börne, fully Karl Ludwig Börne
"Nature thrives on patience; man on impatience." - Paul Boese
"A man without religion or spiritual vision is like a captain who finds himself in the midst of an uncharted sea, without compass, rudder and steering wheel. He never knows where he is, which way he is going and where he is going to land." - William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker
"If you want to earn more - learn more. If you want to get more out of the world you must put more into the world. For, after all, men will get no more out of life than they put into it." - William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker
"The more you learn what to do with yourself, and the more you do for others, the more you will learn to enjoy the abundant life." - William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker
"What a pleasure life would be to live if everybody would try to do only half of what he expects others to do." - William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker
"You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." - William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker
"Your greatness is measured by your kindness - Your education and intellect by your modesty - Your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices - Your real caliber is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others." - William J. H. Boetcker, fully William John Henry Boetcker
"As faintness is a disease of the body, so is vice a sickness of the mind. Wherefore, since we judge those that have corporal infirmities to be rather worthy of compassion than hatred, much more are they to be pitied, and not abhorred, whose minds are oppressed with wickedness, the greatest malady that may be." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"Happiness consists in the possession in aggregate of all good things." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"He who is virtuous is wise; and he who is wise is good; and he who is good is happy." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"In other living creatures ignorance of self is nature; in man it is vice." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"It is one thing to be carried through an endless life, another thing to embrace the whole presence of an endless life together, which is manifestly proper to the divine Mind. The temporal world seems to emulate in part that which it cannot fully obtain or express, tying itself to whatever presence there is in this exiguous and fleeting moment - a presence which, since it carries a certain image of that abiding Presence, gives to whatever may partake of it the quality of seeming to have being. But because it could not stay, it undertook an infinite journey of time; and so it came to pass that, by going, it continued that life, whose plenitude it could not comprehend by staying." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"Since God hath always an eternal and present state, His knowledge, surpassing time’s notions, remaineth in the simplicity of His presence and, comprehending the infinite of what is past and to come, considereth all things as though they were in the act of being accomplished." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"The trouble of the many and various aims of mortal men bring them much care, and herein they go forward by different paths but strive to reach one end, which is happiness. And that good is that, to which if any man attain, he can desire nothing further... Happiness is a state which is made perfect by the union of all good things. This end all men seek to reach, as I said, though by different paths. For there is implanted by nature in the minds of men a desire for the true good; but error leads them astray towards false goods by wrong paths." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"Virtues are not honored by dignities, but dignities by virtue." - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"Whose happiness is so firmly established that he has no quarrel from any side with his estate of life?" - Boethius, fully Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius NULL
"He that is master of himself will soon be master of others." - Henry George Bohn
"He who has lost confidence can lose nothing more." - Pierre Claude Boiste, fully Pierre Claude Victor Boiste
"To regard the excesses of the passions as maladies has so salutary an effect that this idea renders all moral sermons useless." - Pierre Claude Boiste, fully Pierre Claude Victor Boiste
"Man cannot live by bread alone. The making of money, the accumulation of material power, is not all there is to living. Life is something more than these, and the man who misses this truth misses the greatest joy and satisfaction that can come into his life - service for others." - Edward William Bok
"I had the opportunity to deliver babies... In each of these numinous moments, I knew that life had meaning; each experience was accompanied by an upwelling of gratitude and humility. These moments, which can be called an experience of the self, or archetype of meaning, are akin to the act of finally seeing the Holy Grail after a long quest... It is through these moments of grace and gratitude that we acquire a sense of meaning and a desire to live a meaningful life. The personal challenge is now." - Jean Shinoda Bolen