Quotes About Character

This ought to be our endeavor: to conquer ourselves and daily to grow stronger against ourselves, and to grow in holiness.

You do not grow in holiness because of the praise you receive, nor do you become evil because of the blame poured upon you.

We shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived.

Unhappily we are so weak that we find it easier to believe and speak evil of others, rather than good.

For verily it is not deep words that make a man holy and upright; it is a good life which maketh a man dear to God.

Hidden pride is a most pernicious vice, the more so since it is not recognized and does not recognize itself. On the outside, it may appear gentle, mild, and even humble. Yet inside, it burns away bitterly. The person who is subject to such pride becomes inordinately elated when he is successful but is disturbed and dejected in the face of adversity or failure.

What doth it profit thee to enter into deep discussion concerning the Holy Trinity, if thou lack humility, and be thus displeasing to the Trinity?

HE that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, 1 saith the Lord. These are the words of Christ; and they teach us how far we must imitate His life and character, if we seek true illumination, and deliverance from all blindness of heart. Let it be our most earnest study, therefore, to dwell upon the life of Jesus Christ.

Occasions of adversity best discover how great virtue or strength each one hath. For occasions do not make a man frail, but they reveal what he is.

The man who is not yet wholly dead to self, is soon tempted, and is overcome in small and trifling matters.

On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived.

Of a surety, at the Day of Judgment it will be demanded of us, not what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holily we have lived.

Peace is ever with the humble man, but in the heart of the proud there is envy and continual wrath.

The beginning of all temptations to evil is instability of temper and want of trust in God;

What doth it profit thee to enter into deep discussion concerning the Holy Trinity, if thou lack humility, and be thus displeasing to the Trinity? For verily it is not deep words that make a man holy and upright;

It is not in the nature of man to bear the cross, to love the cross, to keep under the body and to bring it into subjection, to fly from honours, to bear reproaches meekly, to despise self and desire to be despised, to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world.

Who is forced to struggle more than he who tries to master himself? This ought to be our purpose, then: to conquer self, to become stronger each day, to advance in virtue.

He who shaneth not small faults falleth little by little into greater.

Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will.

Jerome says (Ep. ad Nepot. lii): "Shun, as you would the plague, a cleric who from being poor has become wealthy, or who, from being a nobody has become a celebrity.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.

A man is known by the company his mind keeps.

All human beings must perform according to their nature.

We have to keep company with supposedly bad characters if we are to survive and not succumb to mental atrophy. People of good character, so called, are the ones who end up boring us to death.