Quotes About Character

Set your ambitions, even if you are uncertain about what they should be. The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power.

The way that you set the world straight is by constraining the malevolence in your own heart. (From "Identity politics and the Marxist lie of white privilege" on YouTube)

Perhaps it's not reasonable to ask God to break the rules of physics every time we fall by the wayside or make a serious error. Perhaps, in such times, you can't put the cart before the horse and simply wish for your problem to be solved in some magical manner. Perhaps you could ask, instead, what you might have to do right now to increase your resolve, buttress your character, and find the strength to go on. Perhaps you could instead ask to see the truth.

A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very, very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control.

Assuming that others think as they do, they expect—instead of ensuring—reciprocity for their thoughtful actions. When this does not happen, they don't speak up. They do not or cannot straightforwardly demand recognition. The dark side of their characters emerges, because of their subjugation, and they become resentful.

In a crisis, the inevitable suffering that life entails can rapidly make a mockery of the idea that happiness is the proper pursuit of the individual. On the radio show, I suggested, instead, that a deeper meaning was required. I noted that the nature of such meaning was constantly re-presented in the great stories of the past, and that it had more to do with developing character in the face of suffering than with happiness.

If you betray yourself, if you say untrue things, if you act out a lie, you weaken your character. If you have a weak character, then adversity will mow you down when it appears, as it will, inevitably. You will hide, but there will be no place left to hide. And then you will find yourself doing terrible things.

Maybe you're even just a collection of bad habits.

La participación en actos cuyo único propósito es la expansión del dolor y el sufrimiento inocentes es algo que destruye el carácter; el encuentro directo con la tragedia, en cambio, puede potenciarlo.

parents should understand their own capacity to be harsh, vengeful, arrogant, resentful, angry and deceitful.

Možda spašavate nekoga zato što ste snažna, velikodušna, sre?ena osoba koja želi u?initi pravu stvar. Ali mogu?e je - i, možda, ?ak vjerojatnije - da samo želite usmjeriti pažnju na svoje neisrpive zalihe suosje?anja i dobre volje. (...) Ili možda zato što je lakše izgledati krjeposnim kada stojite pored nekoga posve neodgovorna. Prvo pretpostavite da ?inite najlakšu stvar, a ne onu najtežu.

standing up straight with your shoulders back is not something that is only physical, because you're not only a body. You're a spirit,

group identity can be fractionated right down to the level of the individual. That sentence should be written in capital letters. Every person is unique—and not just in a trivial manner: importantly, significantly, meaningfully unique.

But a villain who despairs of his villainy has not become a hero. A hero is something positive, not just the absence of evil.

But standing up straight with your shoulders back is not something that is only physical, because you're not only a body. You're a spirit, so to speak—a psyche—as well. Standing up physically also implies and invokes and demands standing up metaphysically. Standing up means voluntarily accepting the burden of Being.

In a crisis, the inevitable suffering that life entails can rapidly make a mockery of the idea that happiness is the proper pursuit of the individual. On the radio show, I suggested, instead, a deeper meaning was required. I noted that the nature of such meaning was constantly re-presented in the great stories of the past, and that it had more to do with developing character in the face of suffering than with happiness.

That is the moral of both narratives: follow the rules until you are capable of being a shining exemplar of what they represent, but break them when those very rules now constitute the most dire impediment to the embodiment of their central virtues.

Kada iznevjerite sami sebe, kada govorite neistine i živite laž, slabite svoj karakter. Ako imate slab karakter, nevolje ?e vas pomesti kada se pojave, a neizbježno je da se pojave. Skrivat ?ete se, ali ne?ete se više imati kamo skriti. A onda ?ete se zate?i kako radite užasne stvari.

Set your ambitions, even if you are uncertain about what they should be. The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity. Knowing this, tie a rope to a boulder

the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

When this does not happen, they don't speak up. They do not or cannot straightforwardly demand recognition. The dark side of their characters emerges, because of their subjugation, and they become resentful.

Quizá, si viviéramos como habría que vivir, no tendríamos problemas en reconocer nuestro carácter frágil y mortal, sin caer en el victimismo ofuscado que genera primero resentimiento, luego envidia y, finalmente, deseo de venganza y destrucción.

What shall I do to strengthen my spirit? Do not tell lies, or do what you despise.

He observed that the virtues always aim for balance and avoid the extremes of the vices.