This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.
Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism - The right to criticize. The right to hold unpopular beliefs. The right to protest. The right of independent thought. The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us does not? Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own. Otherwise thought control would have set in. The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as Communists or Fascists by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what is used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others. The American people are sick and tired of seeing innocent people smeared and guilty people whitewashed.
Character | Control | Cost | Danger | Freedom of speech | Freedom | People | Principles | Protest | Reputation | Right | Rights | Speech | Thought | Words | Danger | Afraid | Guilty | Thought |
We all know what character is, not because we can define it exactly, but because we know when we have seen it. We know when we have exercised character; at those times we feel clean.
Malcolm S. Forbes, fully Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Sr.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.
Maltbie Babcock, fully Maltbie Davenport Babcock
Is not this steadfastness to mark, to make, the character of our lives? Is it not God’s will that we should press steadily on to our goal in obedience to Him, in channels of His choosing, whether in sunshine or shadow, in the cheer of spring or in the chill of winter, neither detained by pleasure nor deterred by pain?
Marcel Proust, fully Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust
The character we exhibit in the later half of our life need not necessarily be, though it often is, our original character, developed further, dried up, exaggerated, or diminished: it can be its exact opposite, like a suit worn inside out.
Menander, aka Menander of Athens NULL
A man's character is revealed by his speech.
Just as a mountain is constantly being shaped by weather, our character can be reformed by our choices. Our human capacity to reason and choose makes the formation of our character an ongoing process. Each day we can decide to be different.
A person of character must look out for and overcome three very human tendencies that undermine good intentions: self-righteousness, self-delusion, and selfishness.
Character | Delusion | Good | Righteousness | Self | Selfishness | Self-righteousness |
Max Weber, formally Maximilian Carl Emil Weber
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 |
Every ritual has the character of happening now, at this very moment. The time of the event that the ritual commemorates or re-enacts is made present, `re-presented’ so to speak, however far back it may have been in ordinary reckoning.
Every man must strive first for the improvement of his own character, and then of the character of others.
Character | Improvement | Man |
Paul Tillich, fully Paul Johannes Tillich
The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is "ambiguity": the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces - both individual and social.
Ambiguity | Character | Evil | Good | Individual | Life | Life |
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh
Persons of strong character are usually the happiest. They do not blame others for troubles that can usually be traced to their own actions and lack of understanding. They know that no one has any power to add to their happiness or detract from it unless they themselves are so weak that they allow the adverse thoughts and wicked actions of others to affect them.
Blame | Character | Power | Troubles | Understanding | Happiness |
To judge a man's character by only one of its manifestations is like judging the sea by a jugful of its water.