This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
"A family without government," says Matthew Henry, "is like a house without a roof, exposed to every wind that blows." He might better have said, like a house in flames, a scene of confusion, and commonly too hot to live in.
Ilya, Viscount Prigogine, fully Ilya Romanovich Prigozhin
The main character of any living system is openness.
J. R. Miller, fully James Russell Miller
A true home is one of the most sacred of places. It is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world’s perils and alarms. It is a resting-place to which at close of day the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow. It is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into discipline and strength, where character is molded.
Battle | Character | Day | Discipline | Life | Life | Love | Men | Sacred | Strength |
Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh NULL
Remember, character is not of much value. What is valuable is consciousness -- not conscience but consciousness. Conscience is created by the society. The more foolish you are, the more the society is able to create a conscience in you. It gives you an idea how to live your life. It manipulates you in a very subtle way. It hypnotizes you and conditions you. And the conditioning is so long that you forget completely that these are not your ideas.
Character | Conscience | Consciousness | Society | Society |
The relationship of utility is based on violence; the family as a means of mutual inward security makes for conflict and confusion.
Family | Means | Relationship | Security |
Dada Vaswani, born Jashan Pahalraj Vaswani
Thought is a tremendous force in the life of any individual. Thoughts shape our attitudes. Attitudes mould our character. Character influences our life. By changing our thought pattern, we can change our life.
Change | Character | Force | Life | Life | Thought | Thought |
Human character is never found "to enter into its glory," except through the ordeal of affliction. Its force cannot come forth without the offer of resistance nor can the grandeur of its free will declare itself, except in the battle of fierce temptation.
Since the time of separation of church and state they have been classified as voluntary associations: they depend in principle upon voluntary membership and voluntary contributions. The collection plate in the Sunday Service is sometimes objected to for aesthetic reasons, but it is an earnest, a symbol, of the voluntary character of the association, and it should be interpreted in this fashion. It is a way of saying to the community, "This is our voluntary, independent enterprise, and under God's mercy we who believe in it will support it. We do not for its support appeal to the coercive power of the state."
Aesthetic | Character | Church | Mercy | Power | Service | Time | Will |
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought element within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development.
Character | Circumstances | Indispensable | Life | Life | Thought | Time | Will | Thought |
The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
Mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.
Joseph Fourier, fully Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier
The integrals which we have obtained are not only general expressions which satisfy the differential equation, they represent in the most distinct manner the natural effect which is the object of the phenomenon... when this condition is fulfilled, the integral is, properly speaking, the equation of the phenomenon; it expresses clearly the character and progress of it, in the same manner as the finite equation of a line or curved surface makes known all the properties of those forms.
They themselves are makers of themselves by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; that mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.
Character | Enlightenment | Ignorance | Mind | Pain | Virtue | Virtue |
Traditional autocrats leave in place existing allocations of wealth, power, status, and other re- sources which in most traditional societies favor an affluent few and maintain masses in poverty. But they worship traditional gods and observe traditional taboos. They do not disturb the habitual rhythms of work and leisure, habitual places of residence, habitual patterns of family and personal relations. Because the miseries of traditional life are familiar, they are bearable to ordinary people who, growing up in the society, learn to cope, as children born to untouchables in India acquire the skills and attitudes necessary for survival in the miserable roles they are destined to fill.
Children | Family | Life | Life | People | Survival | Work | Worship | Learn |
Jean Paul, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, aka Jean Paul Richter
A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's.
Jean Paul, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, aka Jean Paul Richter
Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another.