This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"The more powerful the obstacle, the more glory we have in overcoming it; and the difficulties with which we are met are the maids of honor which set off virtue." - Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin NULL
"The worth and value of a man is in his heart and his will; there lies his real honor. Valor is the strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul." - Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"The earth we live on is so small that even if someone was honored by everyone on our planet it is still insignificant. Also, a person’s lifetime is so short that even if he received honor and approval his entire life, it is so short in comparison with eternity. This is the ultimate success an approval-seeker can hope for, but the reality is that even if you spend you entire life trying to win the approval of others, only a small number of people will know and approve of you. The approval you do gain lasts a very short time and is soon forgotten as if it never was." - Bachya Ibn Pekudah
"You can be deprived of your money, your job and your home by someone else, but remember that no none can ever take away your honor." - William Lyon Phelps
"They who give, hoping to receive a requital, such as praise or honor... are in reality making a bargain." - Philo, aka Philo of Alexandria, Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew NULL
"Let honor be to us as strong an obligation as necessity is to others." - Pliny the Elder, full name Casus Plinius Secundus NULL
"Honor adorns the honorable; the dishonorable it brands." - Publius Syrus
"Wantonness and honor are never in harmony." - Publius Syrus
"Let the foundation of thy affection be virtue, then make the building as rich and as glorious as thou canst; if the foundation be beauty or wealth, and the building virtue, the foundation is too weak for the building, and it will fall: happy is he, the palace of whose affection is founded upon virtue, walled with riches, glazed with beauty, and roofed with honor." - Francis Quarles
"A poor person does not die from starvation, but from arrogance and honor-seeking." - Yisroel Salanter Lipkin
"Envy, lust, and honor-seeking take a person out of the world." - Yisroel Salanter Lipkin
"Even though we personally should do what we can to flee from honor, we still have an obligation to treat other people with honor and respect." - Yisroel Salanter Lipkin
"Avarice destroys honor, integrity, and all other noble qualities." - Sallust, full name Carus Valerius Sailustius Crispus NULL
"Who is wise? The man who can learn something from every man. Who is strong? The man who overcomes his passion. Who is rich? The man who is content with his fate. Whom do men honor? The man who honors his fellow man." - Sayings of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot or Pirqe Aboth) NULL
"There is no greater fool than one who makes his happiness based on receiving honor and approval. Such a person’s happiness is always in the hands of others... Such a person is dependent on other people his enter life and will frequently suffer humiliation. Only an idiot would knowingly and willingly put himself in a situation where he will constantly be in need of others and will humiliate himself for a dubious and questionable benefit." - Avraham-Haim Shag, born Avraham-Haim Tzvebner
"Regardless of how much honor he receives, an honor-seeker will feel upset if even one person does not show him the honor and approval he demands. There will never be an amount of honor that will satisfy him. Physical desires have a saturation point, but the desire for honor is based on falsehood and illusion and is really nothing in itself." - Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz
"How can you clarify if you do good deeds because they are right or merely to gain honor and approval? Ask yourself: “Would I do this if I were all alone and no one would ever find out about my good deed?”" - Binyamin Yehoshua Silver
"The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and estate in the general good will; dignifying every station, and exacting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth and secures all the honor without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells; for it is the result of proved honor, rectitude and consistency - qualities which, perhaps more than any others, command the general confidence and respect of mankind." - Samuel Smiles
"The world will never be in any manner of order or tranquillity until men are firmly convinced that conscience, honor and credit are all in one interest; and that without he concurrence of the former the latter are but impositions upon ourselves and others." - Richard Steele, fully Sir Richard Steele
"The life of a person who demands and pursues approval is full of pain and suffering. Even if he does receive a large amount of approval, he will still demand more. We can say with certainty that not everyone will honor him as much as he would like and he will cause himself much self-imposed misery." - Menachem Taryash
"From the perspective of the minuteness of our planet in relationship with the entire universe a person’s seeking honor is ridiculous." - Yechiel Michel Tukatinsky
"If a person is indecisive about which of two courses of action to take, the question to ask himself is: “Which choice will bring more honor to the Almighty?” The reply to this question is the path to choose." - Shmuel Tzvi of Alexander, fully Admor Shmuel Tzvi Dantziger from Alexander, aka Samuel Alexander
"Usually people are not envious of someone’s virtues, but of the honor the person receives for his virtues." - Hotzoas Chochmah Umassar
"A woman of honor should not suspect another of things she would not do herself." - Marguerite De Valois, or Margaret of Valois, Marguerite de France
"When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead." - John Greenleaf Whittier
"I am unable to understand how a man of honor could take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust." - Charles Pierre Baudelaire
"Live more closely to the rhythms of nature... To keep our priorities straight, it is helpful to live more deliberately, with enough discipline to evoke and sustain a sensitivity to the inner life. To honor the rhythms and requirements of your life, be sure that the pattern you adopt is organic and flexible, rather than arbitrary and artificial... Live each day mindfully. Spiritual life requires no strongman acts, no glittering achievements or spectacular successes, but it does require passionate fidelity to the hundred little things of mundane life." - Mother Tessa Bielecki
"Religion is not a perpetual moping over good books. Religion is not even prayer, praise, holy ordinances, these are necessary to religion - no man can be religious without them. But religion is mainly and chiefly the glorifying of god amid the duties and trials of the world; the guiding of our course amid adverse winds and currents of temptation by the sunlight of duty and the compass of Divine truth, the bearing up manfully, wisely, courageously, for the honor of Christ, our great Leader in the conflict of life." - John Caird
"Real holiness has love for its essence, humility for its clothing, the good of others as its employment, and the honor of God as its end." - Nathanael Emmons, also Nathaniel Emmons
"While others talked about what they would do if they heard that they had to die within that very hour, Saint Charles Borromaeus said he would continue his game of chess. For he had begun it only in honor of god, and he could wish for nothing better than to be called away in the midst of an action undertaken in the honor of God." -
"Above all others is justice: success is a good thing; wealth is good also; honor is better; but justice excels them all." - David Dudley Field II
"The end of worship amongst men is power. For where a man seeth another worshipped, he supposeth him powerful, and is the readier to obey him; which makes his power greater. But God has no ends: the worship we do him proceeds from our duty and is directed according to our capacity by those rules of honor that reason dictateth to be done by the weak to the more potent men, in hope of benefit, for fear of damage, or in thankfulness for good already received from them." - Thomas Hobbes
"The nature of God is incomprehensible; that is to say, we understand nothing of what He is, but only that He is; and therefore the attributes we give Him are not to tell one another what He is, nor to signify our opinion of His nature, but our desire to honor Him with such names as we conceive most honorable amongst ourselves." - Thomas Hobbes
"We often wonder that certain men and women are left by God to the commission of sins that shock us. We wonder how, under the temptation of a single hour, they fall from the very heights of virtue and of honor into sin and shame. The fact is that there are no such falls as these, or there are next to none. These men and women are those who have dallied with temptation - have exposed themselves to the influence of it, and have been weakened and corrupted by it." -
"It is certain that a serious attention to the sciences and liberal arts softens and humanizes the temper, and cherishes those fine emotions in which true virtue and honor consist. It very rarely happens that a man of taste and learning is not, at least, an honest man, whatever frailties may attend him." - David Hume
"It is our right to hate an evil man for his actions, but because his deepest self is the image of God, it is our duty to honor him with love." - Abraham Isaac Kook
"Waste not your strength trying to push shut doors which God is opening. Neither wear yourself out in keeping open doors which ought to be forever sealed. Some episode in your life, over which you are anxious, is closed. it is in the past. Whatever its memory, you cannot change it. But you can shut the door. Go into some silent place of thought. Test your self-respect. Ask your soul, "Have I emerged from this experience with honor, or if not, can honor be retrieved?" And if your soul answers, "Yes," close then the door to that Past; hang a garland over the portal if you will, but come away without tarrying. The east is aflame with the radiance of the morning, and before you stands many another door, held open by the hand of God." - Oscar Edward Maurer
"Yet it is meet and proper that a nation should set apart an annual day for national giving of thanks. It is a public recognition of God as the Author of all prosperity. It is the erection of a memorial to the honor of him who has led us through another year. The annual proclamations which call to the duty of thanksgiving are calculated to remind the people of their indebtedness to God, to stir in their minds and hearts emotions of gratitude and praise, and to call out thanks and sincere worship which otherwise might not find expression. But if the observance of the day be not marked by real remembering of mercies and by real lifting of hearts to God in thanks, what blessing can possibly come with it?" -
"In all things except those that are simply bad, change is to be feared: change of seasons, winds, food, and humors. And no laws are held in their true honor except those to which God has given some ancient duration, so that no one knows their origin or that they were ever different." - Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
"As virtue is necessary in a republic, and in a monarchy honor, so fear is necessary in a despotic government: with regard to virtue, there is no occasion for it, and honor would be extremely dangerous." - Baron de Montesquieu, fully Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
"I think life is to do something for other tribesmen, save the culture and keep the circle going. And we must honor the separateness of each culture, tribe and language." - Padee Moothoo
"We do not honor the fathers by going back to the place where they stopped but by going on toward the things their vision foresaw." - Justin Wroe Nixon
"We should honor our teachers more than our parents, because while our parents cause us to live, our teachers cause us to live well." - Philoxenus of Mabbug, aka Aksnāyā NULL
"The world of silence without speech is the world before creation, the world of unfinished creation. In silenced truth is passive and slumbering, but in language it is wide-awake. Silence is fulfilled only when speech comes forth from silence and gives it meaning and honor." - Max Picard
"Meditation is the life of the soul; action is the soul of meditation; honor is the reward of action; so meditate, that thou mayst do; so do, that thou mayst purchase honor; for which purchase, give God the glory." - Francis Quarles