This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The sound and proper exercise of the imagination may be made to contribute to the cultivation of all that is virtuous and estimable in the human character.
Character | Cultivation | Imagination | Sound |
It's what each of us sows, and how, that gives to us character and prestige. Seeds of kindness, goodwill, and human understanding, planted in fertile soil, spring up into deathless friendships, big deeds of worth, and a memory that will not soon fade out. We are all sowers of seeds - and let us never forget it!
Character | Deeds | Kindness | Memory | Understanding | Will | Worth | Deeds |
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 |
Bahya ben Asher ibn Halawa, also known as Rabbeinu Behaye
It is integrity that invests man with immortality, and bestows upon him the privilege of direct communion with God.
Character | God | Immortality | Integrity | Man | Privilege |
Simeon ben Azai, sometimes Ben Azai
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.
Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gesture or quick movement inspires involuntary disrespect. One looks for a moment at a cascade; but one sits for hours, lost in thought, and gazing upon the still water of a lake. A deliberate gait, gentle manners, and a gracious tone of voice - all of which may be acquired - give a mediocre man an immense advantage over those vastly superior to him. To be bodily tranquil, to speak little, and to digest without effort are absolutely necessary to grandeur of mind or of presence, or to proper development of genius.
Character | Disrespect | Effort | Genius | Gentleness | Little | Looks | Man | Manners | Mind | Simplicity | Thought |
Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
A man does not sin by commission only, but often by omission.
Use sin as it will use you; spare it not, for it will not spare you; it is your murderer, and the murderer of the whole world. Use it, therefore, as a murderer should be used; kill it before it kills you; and though it brings you to the grave, as it did your head, it shall not be able to keep you there. You love not death; love not the cause of death.
Cause | Character | Death | Grave | Kill | Love | Sin | Will | World |