This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.
Character | Deceit | Light | Man | Modesty | Reputation | Virtue | Virtue | Vice |
The world is governed much more by opinion than by laws. It is not the judgment of courts, but the moral judgment of individuals and masses of men, which is the chief wall of defence around property and life. With the progress of society, this power of opinion is taking the place of arms.
Character | Judgment | Life | Life | Men | Opinion | Power | Progress | Property | Society | World |
Worldly ambition is founded on pride or envy, but emulation, or laudable ambition, is actually founded in humility; for it evidently implies that we have a low opinion of our present attainments, and think it necessary to be advanced.
Ambition | Character | Envy | Humility | Opinion | Present | Pride | Ambition | Think |
Madame Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvières de la Mothe Guyon
There are three kinds of silence. Silence from words is good, because inordinate speaking tends to evil. Silence, or rest from desires and passions is still better, because it promotes quietness of spirit. But the best of all is silence from unnecessary and wandering thoughts, because that is essential to internal recollection, and because it lays a foundation for a proper reputation and for silence in other respects.
Better | Character | Evil | Good | Reputation | Rest | Silence | Spirit | Words |
Sarah Grand, pseudonymn of Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke McFall
Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than in what they make us see in ourselves.
Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland
Character lives in a man, reputation outside of him.
Character | Man | Reputation |
A man’s Self is the sum-total of all that he can call his, not only his body, and his psychic powers, but this clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his land and horse and yacht and bank account.
Body | Character | Children | Land | Man | Reputation | Self | Wife |
The only time you have a reputation is when you're not living up to it.
Character | Reputation | Time |
Juvenal, fully Decimus Junius Juvenalis NULL
It is a wretched thing to lean on the reputation of others, lest the pillars being withdrawn the roof should fall in ruins.
Character | Reputation |
John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
Character | Day | Reputation | War | Will |