This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Principles do not mainly influence even the principled; we talk on principle, but we act on interest.
Character | Influence | Principles |
The influence of individual character extends from generation to generation. The world is molded by it.
Character | Individual | Influence | World |
Get to know two things about a man - how he earns his money and how he spends it - and you have a clue to his character, for you have a searchlight that shows up the inmost recesses of his soul. You know all you need to know about his standards, his motives, his driving desires, his real religion.
Character | Man | Money | Motives | Need | Religion | Soul |
There is nothing a man can less afford to leave at home than his conscience or his good habits; for it is not to be denied that travel is, in its immediate circumstances, unfavorable to habits of self-discipline, regulation of thought, sobriety of conduct, and dignity of character. Indeed, one of the great lessons of travel is the discovery how much our virtues owe to the support of constant occupation, to the influence of public opinion, and to the force of habit; a discovery very dangerous, if it proceed from an actual yielding to temptations resisted at home, and not from a consciousness of increased power put forth in withstanding them.
Character | Circumstances | Conduct | Conscience | Consciousness | Dignity | Discipline | Discovery | Force | Good | Habit | Influence | Man | Nothing | Occupation | Opinion | Power | Public | Regulation | Self | Thought | Yielding | Discovery |
It’s not the things that can be bought that are life’s richest treasures. It’s priceless little courtesies that money cannot measure. Each little act of graciousness or kindly little favor that fills the heart with gratitude leaves memories to savor.
Character | Gratitude | Heart | Life | Life | Little | Money |
Lillian Smith, fully Lillian Eugenia Smith
Minds broken in two. Hearts broken. Conscience torn from acts. A culture split in a thousand pieces. That is segregation.
Character | Conscience | Culture |
Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
The aim that comedy has in view is the same as that of the highest destiny of man, and this consists in liberating himself from the influence of violent passions, and taking a calm and lucid survey of all that surrounds him, and also of his own being, and of seeing everywhere occurrence rather than fate or hazard, and ultimately rather smiling at the absurdities than shedding tears and feeling anger at sight of the wickedness of man.
Anger | Character | Comedy | Destiny | Fate | Hazard | Influence | Man | Tears | Wickedness | Fate |
The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and estate in the general good will; dignifying every station, and exacting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth and secures all the honor without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells; for it is the result of proved honor, rectitude and consistency - qualities which, perhaps more than any others, command the general confidence and respect of mankind.
Character | Confidence | Consistency | Fame | Glory | Good | Honor | Influence | Life | Life | Man | Mankind | Position | Power | Qualities | Rank | Respect | Society | Wealth | Will | Respect |
Robert Louis Stevenson, fully Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson
To be rich in admiration and free from envy; to rejoice greatly in the good of others; to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence; these are the gifts of fortune which money cannot buy and without which money can buy nothing. He who has such a treasury of riches, being happy and valiant himself, in his own nature, will enjoy the universe as if it were his own estate; and help the man to whom he lends a hand to enjoy it with him.
Absence | Admiration | Character | Envy | Fortune | Generosity | Good | Happy | Heart | Love | Man | Money | Nature | Nothing | Riches | Universe | Will |