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~We can do noble acts
without ruling the earth and sea.
(dunaton de kai mê archonta gês kai thalattês prattein)
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-Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics, 350BC
1179a 10
W.D. Ross, trans.
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Nobody can honestly think of himself as a
strong character because, however successful he may be in overcoming them,
he is necessarily aware of the doubts and temptations that accompany every
important choice.
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-W. H. Auden
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~How much ease he gains who
does not look at what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what
he himself is doing in order that his own action may be just, pious, and
good.
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-Marcus Aurelius
The Meditations, 167
Bk. 4, 18
G.M.A. Grube, trans., 1963
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~No longer talk at all about
the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.
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-Marcus Aurelius
The Meditations, 167
Bk. 10, 16
George Long, trans.
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~People seem not to see that
their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
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-Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Conduct of Life, 1860
Ch. VI, "Worship"
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You can't build a reputation on what you're
going to do.
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-Henry Ford
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You cannot dream yourself into a character; you
must hammer and forge one for yourself.
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-James A. Froude
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A reputation once broken may possibly be
repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the
crack was.
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-Joseph Hall
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Esse Quam Videri
(To be rather than to seem)
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-The motto of North Carolina
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Whenever two people meet there
are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man
as the other sees him, and each man as he really is.
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-William James (cf. Character: Karr)
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Good will, like a good name, is got by many
actions and lost by one.
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-Lord Jeffrey
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Every man has three
characters--that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he
thinks he has.
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-Alphonse Karr
(cf. Character: James)
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Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be
stronger men.
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John F. Kennedy
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One may be better than his reputation, but never
better than his principles.
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-Nicholas Valentin de Latena
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~We judge ourselves by what
we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already
done.
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-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Kavanagh, 1849
Bk. 1, ch. 1
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The measure of a man's real character is what
he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
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-Thomas Babington Macaulay
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*You've got cobwebs on your
halo,
In the closet there are skeletons, lined up ready to talk.
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-Meat Puppets (Curt Kirkwood-lyrics, Cris
Kirkwood, Derrick Bostrom)
Too High To Die, 1994
"Shine"
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*What I've felt,
What I've known,
Never shine through in what I've shown.
Never be,
Never see,
Won't see what might have been.
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-Metallica (James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk
Hammett, Jason Newsted)
Metallica, 1991
"The Unforgiven"
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*Now, can there be a worse
disgrace than this-that I should be thought to value money more than the life
of a friend?
/
(kaitoi tis an aischiôn eiê tautês doxa ê dokein chrêmata peri pleionos
poieisthai ê philous; ou gar peisontai)
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-The character Crito, in Plato's
Crito
44c
Benjamin Jowett, trans.
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*Your ego is the strictest
judge.
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-Gail Wynand, a hero in Ayn Rand's
The Fountainhead, 1943
Part Four, "Howard Roark", Ch. 11
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A man never discloses his own character so
clearly as when he describes another's.
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-Jean Paul Richter
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~The good I stand on is my
truth and honesty.
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-The character Cranmer in William Shakespeare's
King Henry The Eighth, 1611
Act V, sc. i
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~The test of a man or woman's
breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.
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-George Bernard Shaw
The Philanderer, 1893
Act II
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The way to gain a good reputation is to
endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
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-Socrates
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A man's real worth is determined by what he
does when he has nothing to do.
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-Unknown
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Men's maxims reveal their characters.
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-Vauvenargues
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Character is doing what's right when nobody's
looking.
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-J.C. Watts
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Be more concerned with your character than
with your reputations, because character is what you really are while
reputation is merely what others think you are.
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-John Wooden
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~How happy is he born and
taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill.
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-Sir Henry Wotton
The Character of a Happy Life, 1651
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