This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
It is in periods of apparent disaster, during the sufferings of whole generations, that the greatest improvement in human character has been effected.
Character | Improvement |
The improvement of the mind improves the heart and corrects the understanding.
Character | Heart | Improvement | Mind | Understanding |
When working on improving yourself, it is easy to become discouraged because you do not see sufficient progress. Keep trying and do not give up. Every small amount of improvement is a success.
Character | Improvement | Progress | Success |
Any person who thinks rationally will not feel discouraged in the area of personal growth and obtaining wisdom. He realizes that perfection is impossible and not required of him. Constant improvement is what is required and everyone has the ability to improve.
Ability | Character | Growth | Improvement | Perfection | Will | Wisdom |
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury
Charity should be the habit of our estimates; kindness of our feelings; benevolence of our affections; cheerfulness of our social intercourse; generosity of our living; improvement of our progress; prayer of our desires; fidelity of our sex-examination; being and doing good of our entire life.
Benevolence | Character | Charity | Cheerfulness | Feelings | Fidelity | Generosity | Good | Habit | Improvement | Kindness | Life | Life | Prayer | Progress |
John M. Wilson, fully John Moulder Wilson
Let's learn and label properly Disappointment and Discouragement for what they are - two completely different states of mind. Disappointment can be a spur to improvement that will contribute to success. But Discouragement is a mortal enemy that destroys courage and robs one of the will to fight. It is not circumstance that causes Discouragement, but one's own reaction to that circumstance. Everyone must meet Disappointment, many times; it is simply a part of life. When it is met, we may resign ourselves to Discouragement and failure. Or we may recognize each Disappointment as an asset by which we can profit, and take new strength from a lesson learned. The choice is ours, each time, to make.
Character | Choice | Courage | Enemy | Failure | Improvement | Lesson | Life | Life | Mind | Mortal | Strength | Success | Time | Will | Wisdom | Circumstance | Learn |
Improvement makes straight roads, but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
Genius | Improvement | Wisdom |
Religion, in its purity, is not so much a pursuit as a temper; or rather it is a temper, leading to the pursuit of all that is high and holy. Its foundation is faith; its action, works; its tempter, holiness; its aim, obedience to God in improvement of self and benevolence to men.
Action | Benevolence | Faith | God | Improvement | Men | Obedience | Purity | Religion | Self | Temper | Wisdom | God |
Frederic Eggleston, fully Sir Frederic William Eggleston
The great task of peace is to work morals into it. The only sort of peace that will be real is one in which everybody takes his share or responsibility. World organizations and conferences will be of no value unless there is improvement in the relation of men to men.
Improvement | Men | Peace | Responsibility | Will | Wisdom | Work | World | Value |
Robert Heilbroner, fully Robert Louis Heilbroner
The civilization malaise, in a word, reflects the inability of a civilization directed to material improvement - higher incomes, better diets, miracles of medicine, triumphs of applied physics and chemistry - to satisfy the human spirit.
Better | Civilization | Improvement | Miracles | Spirit | Wisdom |
The improvement of the understanding is for two ends; first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.
Ends | Improvement | Knowledge | Understanding | Wisdom |
Always remember that the people are not fighting for ideas, nor for what is in men’s minds. The people fight and accept the sacrifices demanded by the struggle in order to gain material advantages, to live better and in peace, to benefit from progress, and for the better future of their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence are hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into real improvement of living conditions.
Better | Children | Fighting | Future | Ideas | Improvement | Men | Order | Peace | People | Progress | Struggle | Words |
Rudolf Diesel, fully Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel
The hope that technology will save us or will miraculously effect our moral improvement is a kind of modern idolatry.
Hope | Improvement | Technology | Will |
Every small improvement is a part of the bridge between today’s location and your heart’s desire.
Desire | Heart | Improvement |
The grand instrument for forwarding the improvement of the mind is the publication of truth.
Improvement | Mind | Truth |
David Landes, fully David Saul Landes
In this world the optimists have it, not because they are always right, but because they are positive. Even when they are wrong, they are positive, and they is the way of achievement, correction, improvement and success.
Achievement | Improvement | Right | Success | World | Wrong |