This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor will feel a pleasure in the reverse; and those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues are happy if others can be depressed to a level with themselves.
Character | Despair | Distinction | Good | Happy | Pain | Pleasure | Will |
All action is for the sake of some end; and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and color from the end to which they are subservient.
The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this; nor is it in the nature of human intellect to become wise in any other manner.
Character | Knowing | Man | Nature | Wisdom | Wise | Intellect |
When the modern corporation acquires power over markets, power in the community, power over the state and power over belief, it is a political instrument, different in degree but not in kind from the state itself. To hold otherwise — to deny the political character of the modern corporation — is not merely to avoid the reality. It is to disguise the reality. The victims of that disguise are those we instruct in error. The beneficiaries are the institutions whose power we so disguise. Let there be no question: economics, so long as it is thus taught, becomes, however unconsciously, a part of the arrangement by which the citizen or student is kept from seeing how he or she is, or will be, governed.
Ethics critically examines values and how they are to be acted out; but whether they are acted out or not, loyalty to them depends on character or personal quality, and so it follows that the quality of medicine depends on the character of its clinicians.
The achievement of the hero is one that he is ready for and it's really a manifestation of his character. It's amusing the way in which the landscape and conditions of the environment match the readiness of the hero. The adventure that he is ready for is the one that he gets ... The adventure evoked a quality of his character that he didn't know he possessed.
Achievement | Adventure | Character | Hero |
There are but few men who have character enough to lead lives of idleness.
The vices operate like age, bring on disease before its time and in the prime of youth, leave the character broken and exhausted.
Indeed the involuntary character of psychiatric treatment is at odds with the spirit and ethics of medicine itself.
A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the social context.
Absolute | Character | Knowledge | Position | Thought | Truth | Thought |
Nothing is more difficult and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to one's time (and those one loves) and to say loudly: No!
Character | Nothing | Opposition | Time |
We not only interpret the character of events... we may also interpret our interpretations.
Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
Time is no specific character of being... I do not believe in the objectivity of time. The concept of Now never occurs in science itself.
Character | Objectivity | Science |
Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.
Ability | Character | Means | Resentment | Forgive |
It is attitude, infinitely more than circumstance, that determines the quality of life. Life is often quite tough, challenging us to choose between seemingly esoteric, intangible ideals and getting goodies or good vibes right now. You have character when you most often choose ideals.
There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks.
The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.