Quotes About Character

And of course, at the center of so much of it was Pitt, who was a startlingly different person when at ease among his friends.

I thank God that I live in the age of Wilberforce and that I know one man at least who is both moral and entertaining.

Bonhoeffer "was a person about whom one had the feeling that he was completely whole," said one Finkenwalde ordinand, "a man who believes in what he thinks and does what he believes in.

You can talk about right and wrong and good and bad all day long, but ultimately people need to see it. Seeing and studying the actual lives of people is simply the best way to communicate ideas about how to behave and how not to behave. We need heroes and role models.

Samuel Wilberforce writes that the "strong friendship was matured, which lasted to the end of life, between the rough coarse philosopher and the genial and accomplished statesman.

what it was that made one virtuous, whether religion or simple cultural habit, or a

Perhaps even more important in the Bonhoeffer family was acting upon what one said one believed. One must not only think clearly but must prove one's thoughts in action. If one was unprepared to live out what one claimed to believe, perhaps one didn't believe what one claimed after all!

The Bonhoeffers raised their children to do the right thing, so when they behaved selflessly and bravely, it was difficult to argue.

But most extraordinary—and evidence to Mrs. Wilberforce of a "Great Change" indeed, though one she certainly welcomed—was a marked absence of that irritability and harsh temper he had sometimes displayed, especially toward her.

What determines our being virtuous is largely the absence of opportunity to be otherwise

When your body was beautiful, you acted pretty ugly. Now that you're ugly, you should beautify your actions. Time has made your body feeble: Yesterday a peacock, today a porcupine.

Entrepreneurs always pitch their idea as 'the X of Y', so this is going to be 'the Microsoft of food.' And yet disruptive innovations usually don't have that character. Most of the time, if something seems like a good idea, it probably isn't.

it's human nature to assume that when we see a mistake, it's due to defects in someone else's department, knowledge, or character,

The difference between the men and the boys in politics is, and always has been, that the boys want to be something, while the men want to do something.

Crisis doesn't change people; it reveals them.

That's the thing with promises, princess. They're only as good as the person who makes them. You of all people should understand that.

Arrogance was unattractive enough when it was attached to true talent or brilliance. Attached to childishness, it was just plain irritating.

Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one's identity.

Integrity simple means not violating one's own identity.

Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one "object" of love. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism. Yet, most people believe that love is constituted by the object, not by the faculty.

Mein Charakter ist meinem Verstand in keiner Weise gewachsen. Ich bedaure das aufrichtig, aber ich tue nichts mehr dagegen.

The one thing she seems to aim at is Individuality; yet she cares nothing for individuals.8

People are rarely diabolic or bent enthusiastically on evil. As a rule, they are only weak; they cannot resist temptation and thus give way to their evil drives.

Life is full of challenges. How you handle these challenges is what builds character. Never be afraid to be who you are.