This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The measure of a man is not determined by his show of outward strength or the volume of his voice or the thunder of his action. It is to be seen rather in terms of the strength of his inner self in terms of the nature and depth of his commitments the sincerity of his purpose and his willingness to continue "growing up."
Action | Character | Man | Nature | Purpose | Purpose | Self | Sincerity | Strength |
Quintilian, fully Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, also Quintillian and Quinctilian NULL
Vice, the opposite of virtue, shows us more clearly what virtue is. Justice becomes more obvious when we have injustice to compare it to. Many such things are proved by their contraries.
Character | Injustice | Injustice | Justice | Virtue | Virtue |
Moshe Rosenstein, fully Moshe ben Chaim Rosenstein
A person who appreciates that the Almighty created everything in the world for his benefit is aware of the multitude of good things he has in the world. With this appreciation, no one considers himself poor in comparison to anyone else just because the other person has a little more than him. Even the poorest person in the world has many things for which to be thankful. Everyone has the ability to be in a state of happiness. Do not allow another person’s having more than you rob you of your happiness.
Ability | Appreciation | Character | Good | Little | World |
The fundamental principle of all morals, on the basis of which I have reasoned in all my writings... is that man is naturally good, loving justice and order; that there is absolutely no original perversity in the human heart, and that the first movements of nature are always right.
Character | Good | Heart | Justice | Man | Nature | Order | Right |
To feel, to feel exquisitely, is the lot of every man; it is the charm that lends a superstitious joy to fear. But to appreciate belongs to the few; to one or two alone, here and there, the blended passion and understanding that constitute in its essence worship.
Character | Fear | Joy | Man | Passion | Understanding | Worship |
Phyllis V. Schlemmer and Dalden Jenkins
Our bodies and egos are vehicles by which we can access the experience of physical living. As a key ingredient in an automobile is its driver, so the key ingredient in a person is soul. Without active alignment to soul - a person is lost - the fundamental meaning of life is missing. Planet Earth is a sort of “soul-field”, a body of experience with a characteristic flavor, which individual souls enter to learn, evolve and serve. Perhaps it is a Hall of Mirrors at a fairground, where we see ourselves reflected, expanded and compressed in so many different ways.
Body | Character | Earth | Experience | Individual | Life | Life | Meaning | Soul |
Politeness is good nature regulated by good sense.
Character | Good nature | Good | Nature | Sense |
Moritz Saphir, fully Moritz Gottlieb Saphir, born Moses Saphir
The quintessence of every passion is selfishness.
Character | Passion | Selfishness |
Lewis Schwellenbach, fully Lewis Baxter Schwellenbach
Every right has its responsibilities. Like the right itself, these responsibilities stem from no man-made law, but from the very nature of man and society. The security, progress and welfare of one group is measured finally in the security, progress and welfare of all mankind.
Character | Man | Mankind | Nature | Progress | Right | Security |
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
Our philosophy determines the quality of our life.... how many times you go through those ups and downs you maintain your Divine changelessness.
Character | Life | Life | Philosophy |
Fulton Sheen, fully Archbishop Fulton John Sheen
Self-expression can be wrong as well as right... When self-expression is identified with irrational surrender to lower instincts, it ends by making the person a slave to those passions. Self-denial is not a renunciation of freedom; it is rather the taming of what is savage and base in our nature for what is higher and better. It is a release from imprisonment by our lusts and passions.
Better | Character | Ends | Freedom | Nature | Right | Self | Self-denial | Surrender | Wrong |