Character

William Shakespeare makes a striking tribute in Julius Caesar: His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, “This was a man!”

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.

“Remember, what you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else,” Henry van Dyke said, “but what you are will be yours forever.”

It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease, than to know what sort of disease a person has. –Hippocrates (460-377 BC)

When a man’s religion makes him egotistical, narrow, hard, and harsh, something is the matter with it. The fact is that right and love must go together…

I cannot hear what you say for the thunder of what you are.

In a letter to a friend Benjamin Franklin showed the following attitude toward the many censures he received in his public life: “Such censures I have generally passed over in silence; conceiving when they were just that I ought rather to amend…

Lieutenant John Blandford was a fighter pilot in the Second World War. Prior to being shipped overseas, he was in the base library, reading the novel Of Human Bondage…

A WALL Street broker had fallen in love with a young lady and began dating her. He was very wealthy and he had to be careful whom he related to…

Present condition is nothing — moral character every thing.

Character is formed by a course of actions, and not actions by character. A person can have no character before he has had actions.

Character is what a man truly is, and what his reputation soon will be.

The greatest vices derive their propensity from our most tender infancy, and our most important education depends on the nurse…

In a book called “Entertaining Angels,” the author cites a sur- vey conducted by a major advertising agency…

We often value earthly comfort and happiness over spiritual growth. The speaker reflects on their digestive health struggles, realizing they valued eating more than patience.

SOME thieves one day broke into a store but didn’t steal anything. They just exchanged the tags. They took a $6,000 tag off of a diamond ring and put it on an imitation diamond…

Reputation is what men think we are…

MANY ladies use timers when cooking so that they know when a dish is done. When the timer runs out, it says, “Bing!”…

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

Character is very different from reputation…

We have, all of us, visited beautifully laid-out landscape gardens. The beauty we admire in them is not the result of a few days’ work. It has taken years to produce the effect we admire…

With bits of many-colored stones the patient worker pieces together mosaic work of great beauty. Each little piece of stone is possessed of little beauty by itself. Placed in proper relation with the other pieces, how greatly we admire the effect produced!…

We are all forming our characters, and establishing the principles on which we act. Every little act is of consequence in this matter. The force of habit is very great. We have watched men fresco large rooms…

“Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you’ll have left is your character.”

Thoughts produce acts, acts produce habits, and habits produce character.-Anonymous

Have you ever seen an old apple tree, gnarled, twisted, broken, yet bearing sweet apples as ever?…

I HAPPENED to have the interesting experience of preaching for five years in the church which was built for Edward Everett Hale, the distinguished Boston preacher and author of The Man Without a Country…

(Character) Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Can we preserve the character of the Apostles? That has hitherto been considered worthy of our respect and regard…

Talent alone cannot make a writer; there must be a man behind the book.

The noblest contribution for the benefit of posterity is a good character, formed by good conduct.

There is not a man or woman, however poor they may be, but have it in their power, by the grace of God, to leave behind them the grandest thing on earth, character; and their children might rise up after them and…

To be honest, to be kind; To earn a little and to spend a little less; To make upon the whole a family happier for his presence; To renounce when that shall be necessary and not to be embittered; To keep a…

A dear old Quaker lady, distinguished for her youthful appearance, was asked what she used to preserve her charms…

“What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.”

The last, best fruit that comes late to perfection, even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness toward the hard, forbearance toward the unforbearing, warmth of heart toward the cold, and philanthropy toward the misanthropic.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

He who acts wickedly in private life, can never be expected to show himself noble in public conduct…

Give us a character on which we can thoroughly depend, which we know to be based on principle and on the fear of God, and it is wonderful how many brilliant and popular and splendid qualities we can safely and gladly dispense…

To be worth anything, character must be capable of standing firm upon its feet in the world of daily work, temptation, and trial; and able to bear the wear and tear of actual life. Cloistered virtues do not count for much.

Character must stand behind and back up everything the sermon, the poem, the picture, the play. None of them is worth a straw without it.

Robert E. Lee, though the defeated general in the Civil War, is surely the most remembered military figure of that struggle…

“Bear in mind that brains and learning, like muscle and physical skill, are articles of commerce. They are bought and sold. You can hire them by the year or by the hour…

“There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he’s absolutely free to choose.”

“Well,” said Bessie, very emphatically, “I think Russel Morton is the best boy there is, anyhow.” “Why so, pet?” I asked, settling myself in the midst of the busy group gathered around in the firelight…

Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.

Should one tell you that a mountain had changed its place, you are at liberty to doubt it; but if any one tells you that a man has changed his character, do not believe it.

Assail’d by scandal and the tongue of strife, His only answer was, a blameless life.