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CHARACTER QUOTES

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* Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
-- Aristotle (384-322 BC)

I am an old man, but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
-- Pablo Casals

* Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
-- Peter F. Drucker

* Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
-- Albert Einstein

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves - such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. * The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.-- Albert Einstein

* Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

* Character is higher than intellect.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion . . . It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

* Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
-- Benjamin Franklin

* Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
-- Benjamin Franklin

It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.
-- Betty Friedan

* "You have to do the right thing... You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result." -- Mohandas K. Gandhi

* They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them. -- Mohandas Gandhi

* Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. -- Mohandas K. Gandhi

A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a "Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. -- Mohandas Gandhi

* "You have to do the right thing... You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi
* Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi

* Are right and wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion?
-- William Lloyd Garrison

* In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
~ Thomas Jefferson

I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man.
~ Thomas Jefferson

* And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us ... will be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage... Second, were we truly men of judgment... Third, were we truly men of integrity... Finally, were we truly men of dedication?
-- John F. Kennedy, 1961

And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage... Second, were we truly men of judgment... Third, were we truly men of integrity... Finally, were we truly men of dedication?
-- John F. Kennedy, 1961

* I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr

* The time is always right to do what is right. -- Martin Luther King, Jr

* The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -- Martin Luther King, Jr

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. -- Martin Luther King, Jr

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.
-- Anne Lamott

* Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.
-- Lewis Lapham

* “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
~ Aldo Leopold (American ecologist, 1887-1948)

* I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
-- Abraham Lincoln

* When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.
-- Abraham Lincoln

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

* Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. -- Abraham Lincoln

* You can't talk about the environment, you can't talk about political correctness, affirmative action and all the other innumerable things that freedom is about, unless you have a free society based upon the integrity of the individual. If you have a responsible society, these other issues will not come up in a responsible society, and that is what freedom is all about.
-- Russell Means

* A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
-- Thomas Paine

* Character is much easier kept than recovered.
-- Thomas Paine

* My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
-- Thomas Paine

The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.
~Blaise Pascal

* The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual - for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.
-- M. Scott Peck

* We must do what we conceive to be the right thing, and not bother our heads or burden our souls with whether we are going to be successful. Because if we don't do the right thing, we'll be doing the wrong thing, and we will just be part of the disease, and not a part of the cure.
-- E.F. Schumacher

 

 

* Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it -- a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.
-- Albert Schweitzer

* If it were easier to choose to do the right thing, wouldn't people be more likely to do it? Maybe peace on earth is an impossible dream, but if we changed the rules, this world could be so much better. So, why do we allow an unfair system to rule us by fear? Why don't we work together to create a better world and bring hope! -- Robert Alan Silverstein

* If it were easier to do the right thing, wouldn't people be more likely to do it?
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

Follow your dreams of a better world, and keep on trying, even when there seems to be little hope, because it is the right thing to do. We may never know how the seeds of kindness that we plant may help others on their journey, today, or even sometime far in the future. But Every act of compassion makes a difference! -- Robert Alan Silverstein

* If it were easier to choose to do the right thing, wouldn't people be more likely to do it? Maybe peace on earth is an impossible dream, but if we changed the rules, this world could be so much better. So, why do we allow an unfair system to rule us by fear? Why don't we work together to create a better world and bring hope!
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

* Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
-- Will Rogers

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
-- George Bernard Shaw

Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.
-- Margaret Chase Smith

* The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. -- Margaret Chase Smith

* Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
-- Henry David Thoreau

* We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose.
-- Desmond Tutu


Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let me label you as they may. -- Mark Twain

* Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.
-- Mark Twain

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
-- Mark Twain

* It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. -- Mark Twain

* There is much to be done, there is much that can be done… one person of integrity can make a difference...
-- Elie Wiesel

 

 

 
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