This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Thomas Lickona, fully Thomas Edward Lickona
Schools cannot be ethical bystanders at a time when our society is in deep moral trouble. Rather, schools must do what they can to contribute to the character of the young and the moral health of the nation.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
There is no better indication of a man’s character than the company which he keeps.
Niccolò Machiavelli, formally Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
A truly great man is ever the same under all circumstances; and if his fortune varies, exalting him at one moment and oppressing him at another, he himself never varies, but always preserves a firm courage, which is so closely interwoven with his character that everyone can readily see that the fickleness of fortune has no power over him.
Character | Circumstances | Courage | Fortune | Man | Power |
Thomas Lickona, fully Thomas Edward Lickona
Character so conceived has three interrelated parts: moral knowing, moral feeling, and moral behavior. Good character consists of knowing the good, desiring the good, and doing the good – habits of the mind, habits of the heart, and habits of action. When we think about the kind of character we want for our children, it’s clear that we want them to be able to judge what is right, care deeply about what is right, and then do what they believe to be right – even in the face of pressure from without and temptation from within.
Action | Behavior | Care | Character | Children | Good | Heart | Knowing | Mind | Right | Temptation | Temptation | Think |
Richard Livingstone, fully Sir RIchard Winn Livingstone
And neither mind nor character can be made without a spiritual element. This is just the element that has grown weak, where it has not perished, in our education, and therefore in our civilization, with disastrous results.
Character | Civilization | Education | Mind |
Whitney J. Oates, fully Whitney Jennings Oates
The secular world, particularly in political forms, is finding that it cannot maintain its supremacy without some religious sanction, and consequently is busy manufacturing spurious religious faiths to bolster its own inadequacies.
World |
National Conference of Catholic Bishops NULL
Poverty is not merely the lack of adequate financial resources. It entails a more profound kind of deprivation, a denial of full participation in the economic, social, and political life of society and an inability to influence decisions that affect one’s life. It means being powerless in a way that assaults not only one’s pocketbook but also one’s fundamental human dignity. Therefore, we should seek solutions that enable the poor to help themselves through such means as employment. Paternalistic programs which do too much for and too little with the poor are to be avoided.
Dignity | Influence | Life | Life | Little | Means | Poverty | Society | Society |
John Naber, fully John Phillips Naber
It’s the tough decisions that really test our character, for character is revealed when the price of doing the right thing is more than we want to pay.
Those words, “temperate and moderate,” are words either of political cowardice, or of cunning, or seduction. A thing moderately good, if not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is a species of vice.
Cowardice | Cunning | Good | Moderation | Temper | Virtue | Virtue | Words | Moderation |
Richard Niebuhr, fully Helmut Richard Niebuhr
The Protestantism which stems from Luther has continued to concentrate its energies upon maintaining the freedom of the Word and has been inclined to yield to political and economic forces in what seem to be purely temporal matters.
Freedom |
Luigi Sturzo, fully Don Luigi Sturzo
Peace is essentially a moral fact, and only subordinately a political fact as a means to the end; peace is above all an act of reconciliation.
Means | Peace | Reconciliation |
William Safire, fully William Lewis Safire
Economic freedom cannot exist without political freedom.
Freedom |