This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
Character | Courage | Danger | Eccentricity | Genius | Society | Strength | Time | Society | Danger |
Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.
Character | Courage | Danger | Eccentricity | Genius | Society | Strength | Time | Society | Danger |
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
Mediocrity | Men |
There is no such thing as a logical method of having new ideas, or a logical reconstruction of this process. Every great discover contains an irrational element or a creative intuition.
To attain... self confidence, intense worldly activity is recommended as the most suitable means. It and it alone disperses religious doubts and gives the certainty of grace.. The moral conduct of the average man was thus deprived of its planless and unsystematic character and subjected to a consistent method for conduct as a whole.
Character | Conduct | Confidence | Grace | Man | Means | Method | Self |
Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can act only according to routine.
The study of history is in the truest sense an education and a training for political life... The most instructive, or rather the only, method of learning to bear with dignity the vicissitudes of fortune is to recall the catastrophes of others.
Dignity | Education | Fortune | History | Learning | Life | Life | Method | Sense | Study | Training | Vicissitudes |
The world is mathematical, and has no casualty, in all its vast and flowing curve. Success has no more eccentricity than the gingham and muslin we weave in our mills.
Eccentricity | Success | World |
A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.
Eccentricity | Sanity | Society | Society |
In the republic of mediocrity genius is dangerous.
Genius | Mediocrity |
One great gain that the scientific use of the comparative method of religion has brought us is the duty of genuine reverence for other men’s beliefs... Whatever thoughts any human soul is seeking to live by, deserve the reverence of every other human soul.
The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man; whatsoever he believes, he believes it for himself, not for another.
Man | Merit | Novelty | Originality | Sincerity |
Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.
Government | Important | Method | Qualities | Will | Government |
The fundamental qualities for good execution of a plan is first; intelligence; then discernment and judgment, which enable one to recognize the best method as to attain it; the singleness of purpose; and, lastly, what is most essential of all, will-stubborn will.
Discernment | Good | Method | Plan | Qualities |
The surest method of arriving at a knowledge of God's eternal purposes about us is to be found in the right use of the present moment. God's will does not come to us in the whole, but in fragments, and generally in small fragments. It is our business to piece it together, and to live it into one orderly vocation.
Business | Eternal | Knowledge | Method | Present | Right | Will | Business |
Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.
What opinions the masses hold, or do not hold, is looked on as a matter of indifference. They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect. In a Party member, on the other hand, not even the smallest deviation of opinion on the most unimportant subject can be tolerated.
Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good.
Mediocrity | Public |