This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"The most generous and merciful in judgment upon the faults of others, are always the most free from faults themselves." - Arthur Aughey
"There are many seasons in a man’s life - and the more exalted and responsible his position, the more frequently do these seasons recur - when the voice of duty and the dictates of feeling are opposed to each other; and it is only the weak and the wicked who yield that obedience to the selfish impulses of the heart which is due to reason and honor." - Arthur Aughey
"A favor tardily bestowed is no favor; for a favor quickly granted is a more agreeable favor." - Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius
"Begin; to begin is half the work. Let half still remain; at gain begin this, and thou wilt have finished." - Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius
"Earth produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man." - Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius
"Enjoy your possessions as mortal; see to them as though immortal." - Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius
"Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself." - Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius
"If thou does aught good, do it quickly. For what is done quickly will be acceptable. Favors slowly granted are unfavorably received." - Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius
"When about to commit a base deed, respect thyself, though there is no witness." - Austonius, fully Decimus Magnus Ausonius
"Anger an arrogance are partners. Inner feelings of conceit lead a person to become angry. Conversely, humility leads to forgiveness." - Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, aka Rabbi Avraham Maimuni, aka Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha-Rambam NULL
"Be careful not to consider yourself wicked. A person who considers himself wicked will not try to improve and is likely to become worse than he is now." - Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, aka Rabbi Avraham Maimuni, aka Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha-Rambam NULL
"Do not yearn for any other situation in the world besides the one you actually find yourself in." - Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, aka Rabbi Avraham Maimuni, aka Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha-Rambam NULL
"Once you are used to something, you feel some suffering if you lack it. Be very careful before making something a habit." - Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, aka Rabbi Avraham Maimuni, aka Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha-Rambam NULL
"Strive to not become dependent on the pleasures of the world." - Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, aka Rabbi Avraham Maimuni, aka Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha-Rambam NULL
"Life is something you measure not in years but in precious moments - and in how you value those moments. The responsibility for making such moments meaningful is yours alone. There are no definitions of failure or success except the ones you specify for yourself. You are the meaning of your own life." - Rabbi Avraham of Sochotchov NULL
"Despise not any man, and do not spurn anything; for there is no man that has not his hour, nor is there anything that has not its place." - Simeon ben Azai, sometimes Ben Azai
"He who, for the sake of learning, lowers himself by exposing his ignorance, will ultimately be elevated." - Simeon ben Azai, sometimes Ben Azai
"The recompense of virtue is virtue, and sin, sin." - Simeon ben Azai, sometimes Ben Azai
"The reward of doing one duty is the power to do another." - Simeon ben Azai, sometimes Ben Azai
"Respect one another." - Elazar ben Azariah, alt. spelling Eleazar
"I live in the world, but I seem to myself not of it!.. Natural phenomena are but the shadows of the spirit form which they spring, as the human face changes under the influence of love, hatred or fear... When, O when, shall I be able to reveal its poetry? I see everywhere and in ever object unceasing motion, and in that motion a creative force forever and forever repeating and re-repeating the same simple process as to infinity. Through all nature the grand rhythms roll and heaven and earth are filled with the melody. Men are but boys chasing shadows. The spiritual significance of the world none seem to see - the infinite simplicity of its process are none care to understand." - H. B.
"I saw there was no boundary lines between vegetable and animal life, and hence no beginning nor end to either... All physical phenomena, at their best, are dull and murky till they come up into spiritual life. As an illustration that every law has its universality take the familiar law or principle that action and reaction are equal. What is this but reaping the whirlwind after one has sown the wind, or how does natural law differ from this teaching: ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap?’ Are they aught but different strains in the great cosmic melody?" - H. B.
"The first real mental illumination I remember to have experienced was when I saw that the universe exists in each of its individual atoms - that is, the universe is the result of a few simple processes infinitely repeated. When a drop of water has been mathematically measured, every principle will have been used which would be called form in the measurement of the heavens. All life on the globe is sustained by digestion and assimilation; when by voluntary and traumatic action these stop death follows. The history of an individual mind is the history of the race. Know one thing in its properties and relations and you will know all things." - H. B.
"Don't worry; be happy." - Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
"Love has to spring spontaneously from within. It is no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together; but though Love cannot be forced on anyone, It can be awakened in him through Love itself. Love is essentially self-communicative. Those who do not have It catch It from those who have It. True love is unconquerable and irresistible; and It goes on gathering power and spreading Itself, until eventually It transforms everyone whom It touches." - Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani
"As it is in himself alone that man can find true and enduring happiness, so in himself alone can he find true and efficient consolation in misfortune." - Joseph Marius von Babo
"Virtue, when 'tis praised, groweth like a tree." - Bacchylides NULL
"Regeneration is the beginning of holiness in the soul, and admits of no progression; sanctification is carried on progressively in the heart of the renewed, and will be continued until it is completed in the concluding moments of life." - Charles Backus
"I cannot teach you the ten principles of service. But a little child and a thief can show you what they are. From the child you can learn three things: He is merry for no particular reason; never for a moment is he idle; when he needs something, he demands it vigorously. The thief can instruct you in seven things: He does his service by night; if he does not finish what he has set out to do, in one night, he devotes the next night to it; he and those who work with him love one another; he risks his life for small gains; what he takes has so little value for him that he gives it up for a very small coin; he endures blows and hardship, and it matters nothing to him; he likes his trade and would not exchange it for any other." - Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch, aka Maggid of Mezeritch
"It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations." - Walter Bagehot
"Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind." - Walter Bagehot
"So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise, and their conscience that is wrong." - Walter Bagehot
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
"Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits." - Walter Bagehot
"An inability to stay quiet... is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind." - Walter Bagehot
"Right thinking is a prerequisite to right living... In truth the destiny of any life is determined by what fills that mind." - Roy I. Bagley
"Keep thy spirit pure from worldly taint by the repellent strength of virtue." - Gamaliel Bailey
"There is no surer mark of the absence of the highest moral and intellectual qualities than a cold reception of excellence." - Gamaliel Bailey
"No one's worth wrath." - Henry Christopher "H.C." Bailey
"Sympathy is the worst infirmity of muddling minds." - Henry Christopher "H.C." Bailey
"Time is unforgiving." - Henry Christopher "H.C." Bailey
"Indecision and hesitation are the weakness of a careful nature always intent on the saving of face and losing it thereby." - Henry Christopher "H.C." Bailey
"They who forgive most, shall be most forgiven." - Josia Bailey, fully Josiah William Bailey