Character

"Our characters are the result of our conduct."

"Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free; Patient of toil; serene amidst alarms; Inflexible in faith; invincible in arms."

"Character is not created with a single act, no matter how brilliant or bold. It is forged in the smallest of struggles, the product of a thousand, thousand strokes. Your tool for carving your character’s template lies, in the words of the poet Robert Lowell, within your “peculiar power to choose.” Ultimately, it is the choice of the fundamental over the frivolous, preferring what is true over what’s accepted, the choosing of what is right over what is easy."

"Our stability is but balance, and conduct lies In masterful administration of the unforseen."

"Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; * * * he had two distinct persons in him."

"Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious, Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius."

"So well she acted all and every part By turns—with that vivacious versatility, Which many people take for want of heart. They err—'tis merely what is call'd mobility, A thing of temperament and not of art, Though seeming so, from its supposed facility; And false—though true; for surely they're sincerest Who are strongly acted on by what is nearest."

"We moved from what cultural historians call a culture of character to a culture of personality. During the culture of character, what was important was the good deeds that you performed when nobody was looking. … But at the turn of the (20th) century, when we moved into this culture of personality, suddenly what was admired was to be magnetic and charismatic."

"Thou art a cat, and rat, and a coward to boot."

"Every one is the son of his own works."

"I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes."

"Cada uno es come Dios le hijo, y aun peor muchas vezes."

"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character."

"The Master [Confucius] said, 'In his errors a man is true to type. Observe the errors and you will know the man.'"

"A man’s character is formed by the Odes, developed by the Rites and perfected by music."

"Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy."

"Virtue and vice had boundaries in old time, Not to be pass'd."

"A demd damp, moist, unpleasant body."

"Men of light and leading."

"A man so various, that he seem'd to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome; Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts, and nothing long; But in the course of one revolving moon, Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon."

"So over violent, or over civil, That every man with him was God or Devil."

"For every inch that is not fool, is rogue."

"The clearest indication of character is what people find laughable."

"Character in important and less important matters is that a man should steadily pursue whatever course he feels to be within his capacity."

"Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we see Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree."

"Though equal to all things, for all things unfit; Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit."

"We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it much. People that do not laugh or cry, or take more of anything than is good for them, or use anything but dictionary-words, are admirable subjects for biographies. But we don't care most for those flat pattern flowers that press best in the herbarium."

"Whatever comes from the brain carries the hue of the place it came from, and whatever comes from the heart carries the heat and color of its birthplace."

"If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons."

"A very unclubable man."

"No doubt the reason is that character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."

"If you wish to know someone, you need only observe that on which he bestows his care, and what sides of his own nature he cultivates."

"Those about whom you inquire have moulded with their bones into dust. Nothing but their words remain. When the hour of the great man has struck he rises to leadership; but before his time has come he is hampered in all that he attempts. I have heard that the successful merchant carefully conceals his wealth, and acts as though he had nothing—that the great man, though abounding in achievements, is simple in his manners and appearance. Get rid of your pride and your many ambitions, your affectation and your extravagant aims. Your character gains nothing for all these. This is my advice to you."

"A tender heart; a will inflexible."

"So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good, So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure."

"Sensitive, swift to resent, but as swift in atoning for error."

"In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer."

"We hardly know any instance of the strength and weakness of human nature so striking and so grotesque as the character of this haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stocking, half Mithridates and half Trissotin, bearing up against a world in arms, with an ounce of poison in one pocket and a quire of bad verses in the other."

"And the chief-justice was rich, quiet, and infamous."

"Our character is our will; for what we will we are."

"Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is—more knave than fool."

"He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon."

"Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate the event, my nature is That I incline to hope rather than fear, And gladly banish squint suspicion."

"Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, Nods and Becks and wreathèd Smiles."

"Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved."

"Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."

"For contemplation he and valor formed, For softness she and sweet attractive grace."

"Adam the goodliest man of men since born His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve."

"Her virtue and the conscience of her worth, That would be wooed, and not unsought be won."

"Character is what you are in the dark."

"Any character, from the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to the most enlightened, may be given to any community, even to the world at large, by applying certain means; which are to a great extent at the command and under the controul, or easily made so, of those who possess the government of nations."

"'Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn; A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn: A Judge is just, a Chanc'llor juster still; A Gownman learn'd; a Bishop what you will; Wise if a minister; but if a King, More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'rything."

"With too much Quickness ever to be taught; With too much Thinking to have common Thought."

"From loveless youth to unrespected age, No passion gratified, except her rage, So much the fury still outran the wit, That pleasure miss'd her, and the scandal hit."

"In men we various ruling passions find; In women two almost divide the kind; Those only fixed, they first or last obey, The love of pleasure, and the love of sway."

"What then remains, but well our power to use, And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose? And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail, When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail."

"Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul."

"Our character is our spiritual constitution. It is not made for us, as the Owenites said: it is daily being made and modified by us, by means of our daily human acts. Countless tiny shellfish build up a coral-reef, or a chalk cliff; and countless acts make in time a character. Little acts come and go unnoticed; the result endures; and in the end we are surprised at its magnitude and permanence. Our daily acts, then, must be well done, excellently well done, at least with such excellence as is within our reach."

"If I am not better, at least I am different."

"When you start making a movie, you never know which will be the break out characters, the stars of the movie. That happened to us with Scrat (the saber toothed squirrel in Ice Age. We didn’t know that Scrat was going to be a superstar. Scrat doesn’t diminish the central Ice Age characters, Manny, Sid and Diego."

"I know him a notorious liar, Think him a great way fool, solely a coward; Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him, That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Look bleak i' the cold wind."

"He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere, Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere; Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind, Stigmatical in making, worse in mind."

"Though I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous."

"There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee."

"I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian, glad of mettle, a good boy."

"What a frosty-spirited rogue is this!"

"This bold bad man."

"O, he sits high in all the people's hearts: And that which would appear offence in us. His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness."

"Thou art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd! Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon."

"I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise, and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish."

"What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win."

"I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name."

"There is a kind of character in thy life, That to the observer doth thy history Fully unfold."

"Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time: Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh, like parrots, at a bagpiper: And other of such vinegar aspect That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable."

"When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast."

"You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lantern."

"Why, now I see there's mettle in thee, and even from this instant do build on thee a better opinion than ever before."

"He hath a daily beauty in his life That makes me ugly."

"O do not slander him, for he is kind. Right; as snow in harvest."

"Now do I play the touch, To try if thou be current gold indeed."

"How this grace Speaks his own standing! what a mental power This eye shoots forth! How big imagination Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret."

"The trick of singularity."

"He wants wit that wants resolved will."

"His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles; His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate; * * * * * * His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth."

"As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile."

"I'm called away by particular business. But I leave my character behind me."

"There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken."

"Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam engine in trousers."

"He [Macaulay] is like a book in breeches."

"A bold bad man!"

"Inerat tamen simplicitas ac liberalitas, quæ, nisi adsit modus in exitium vertuntur."

"In turbas et discordias pessimo euique plurima vis: pax et quies bonis artibus indigent."

"He makes no friend who never made a foe."

"Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character."

"The man that makes a character, makes foes."

"The man who consecrates his hours By vig'rous effort and an honest aim, At once he draws the sting of life and death; He walks with nature and her paths are peace."

"There is so much good in the worst of us, And so much bad in the best of us, That it ill behoves any of us To find fault with the rest of us."

"They love, they hate, but cannot do without him."

"In brief, I don't stick to declare, Father Dick, So they call him for short, is a regular brick; A metaphor taken—I have not the page aright— From an ethical work by the Stagyrite."

"Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche."

"Many men are mere warehouses full of merchandise—the head, the heart, are stuffed with goods. * * * There are apartments in their souls which were once tenanted by taste, and love, and joy, and worship, but they are all deserted now, and the rooms are filled with earthy and material things."

"Many men build as cathedrals were built, the part nearest the ground finished; but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete."

"Most men are bad."

"Une grande incapacité inconnue."

"I look upon you as a gem of the old rock."

"No, when the fight begins within himself, A man's worth something."

"Your father used to come home to my mother, and why may not I be a chippe of the same block out of which you two were cutte?"

"Are you a bromide?"

"All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities."

"He was not merely a chip of the old Block, but the old Block itself."

"From their folded mates they wander far, Their ways seem harsh and wild: They follow the beck of a baleful star, Their paths are dream-beguiled."

"With more capacity for love than earth Bestows on most of mortal mould and birth, His early dreams of good out-stripp'd the truth, And troubled manhood follow'd baffled youth."

"Genteel in personage, Conduct, and equipage; Noble by heritage, Generous and free."

"Clever men are good, but they are not the best."

"We are firm believers in the maxim that, for all right judgment of any man or thing, it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad."

"It is in general more profitable to reckon up our defects than to boast of our attainments."

"It can be said of him, When he departed he took a Man's life with him. No sounder piece of British manhood was put together in that eighteenth century of Time."

"He was a verray perfight gentil knight."

"The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an Earldom."

"Importunitas autem, et inhumanitas omni ætati molesta est."

"Ut ignis in aquam conjectus, continuo restinguitur et refrigeratur, sic refervens falsum crimen in purissimam et castissimam vitam collatum, statim concidit et extinguitur."

"What was said of Cinna might well be applied to him. He [Hampden] had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute, any mischief."

"In numbers warmly pure, and sweetly strong."

"Not to think of men above that which is written."

"An honest man, close-button'd to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within."

"He cannot drink five bottles, bilk the score, Then kill a constable, and drink five more; But he can draw a pattern, make a tart, And has ladies' etiquette by heart."

"He's tough, ma'am,—tough is J. B.; tough and de-vilish sly."

"O Mrs. Higden, Mrs. Higden, you was a woman and a mother, and a mangler in a million million."

"I know their tricks and their manners."

"Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child."

"Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace."

"Plain without pomp, and rich without a show."

"There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms."

"She was and is (what can there more be said?) On earth the first, in heaven the second maid."

"A trip-hammer, with an Æolian attachment."

"Character is higher than intellect. * * * A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think."

"No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character."

"A great character, founded on the living rock of principle, is, in fact, not a solitary phenomenon, to be at once perceived, limited, and described. It is a dispensation of Providence, designed to have not merely an immediate, but a continuous, progressive, and never-ending agency. It survives the man who possessed it; survives his age,—perhaps his country, his language."

"Human improvement is from within outwards."

"Our thoughts and our conduct are our own."

"Every one of us, whatever our speculative opinions, knows better than he practices, and recognizes a better law than he obeys."

"Weak and beggarly elements."

"In every deed of mischief, he [Andronicus Comnenus] had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute."

"That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, but nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank,— Creation's blot, creation's blank."

"A man not perfect, but of heart So high, of such heroic rage, That even his hopes became a part Of earth's eternal heritage."

"To be engaged in opposing wrong affords, under the conditions of our mental constitution, but a slender guarantee for being right."

"Aufrichtig zu sein kann ich versprechen; unparteiisch zu sein aber nicht."

"Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, Sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der Welt."

"Welch' höher Geist in einer engen Brust."

"Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre."

"He were n't no saint—but at jedgment I'd run my chance with Jim. 'Longside of some pious gentlemen That wouldn't shook hands with him. He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing— And went for it thar and then; And Christ ain't a-going to be too hard On a man that died for men."

"Anyone must be mainly ignorant or thoughtless, who is surprised at everything he sees; or wonderfully conceited who expects everything to conform to his standard of propriety."

"Kein Talent, doch ein Charakter."

"ἦθος ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων"

"O Dowglas, O Dowglas! Tendir and trewe."

"In death a hero, as in life a friend!"

"Wise to resolve, and patient to perform."

"Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind."

"But he whose inborn worth his acts commend, Of gentle soul, to human race a friend."

"Integer vitæ scelerisque purus Non eget Mauris incidis neque arcu Nec venenatis gravida sagittis Fusce pharetra."

"Paullum sepultæ distat inertiæ Celata virtus."

"Argilla quidvis imitaberis uda."

"A Soul of power, a well of lofty Thought A chastened Hope that ever points to Heaven."

"He was worse than provincial—he was parochial."

"Officious, innocent, sincere, Of every friendless name the friend."

"The heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute."

"Nemo repente venit turpissimus."

"He is truly great that is little in himself, and that maketh no account of any height of honors."

"E'en as he trod that day to God, So walked he from his birth, In simpleness, and gentleness and honor And clean mirth."

"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment seat; But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor birth When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth!"

"La physionomie n'est pas une règle qui nous soit donnée pour juger des hommes; elle nous peut servir de conjecture."

"Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy."

"On n'est jamais si ridicule par les qualités que l'on a que par celles que l'on affecte d'avoir."

"Famæ ac fidei damna majora sunt quam quæ æstimari possunt."

"Not in the clamor of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat."

"For me Fate gave, whate'er she else denied, A nature sloping to the southern side; I thank her for it, though when clouds arise Such natures double-darken gloomy skies."

"All that hath been majestical In life or death, since time began, Is native in the simple heart of all, The angel heart of man."

"Our Pilgrim stock wuz pethed with hardihood."

"Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows sof'ness in the upper story."

"Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts."

"For she was jes' the quiet kind Whose naturs never vary, Like streams that keep a summer mind Snowhid in Jenooary."

"His Nature's a glass of champagne with the foam on 't, As tender as Fletcher, as witty as Beaumont; So his best things are done in the flash of the moment."

"It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested."

"A nature wise With finding in itself the types of all,— With watching from the dim verge of the time What things to be are visible in the gleams Thrown forward on them from the luminous past,— Wise with the history of its own frail heart, With reverence and sorrow, and with love, Broad as the world, for freedom and for man."

"Eripitur persona, manet res."

"There thou beholdest the walls of Sparta, and every man a brick."

"Men look to the East for the dawning things, for the light of a rising sun But they look to the West, to the crimson West, for the things that are done, are done."

"Au demeurant, le meilleur fils du monde."

"In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow; Hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee, That there's no living with thee, or without thee."

"And, but herself, admits no parallel."

"Hereafter he will make me know, And I shall surely find. He was too wise to err, and O, Too good to be unkind."

"Who knows nothing base, Fears nothing known."

"Sae true his heart, sae smooth his speech, His breath like caller air, His very foot has music in 't, As he comes up the stair."

"In men whom men condemn as ill I find so much of goodness still, In men whom men pronounce divine I find so much of sin and blot I do not dare to draw a line Between the two, where God has not."

"Les hommes, fripons en détail, sont en gros de très-honnêtes gens."

"Good at a fight, but better at a play; Godlike in giving, but the devil to pay."

"To those who know thee not, no words can paint; And those who know thee, know all words are faint!"

"To set the Cause above renown, To love the game beyond the prize, To honour, while you strike him down, The foe that comes with fearless eyes; To count the life of battle good, And dear the land that gave you birth; And dearer yet the brotherhood That binds the brave of all the earth."

"Video meliora proboque, Deteriora sequor."

"Every man has at times in his mind the ideal of what he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient; yet in all men that really seek to improve, it is better than the actual character. * * * Man never falls so low that he can see nothing higher than himself."

"Il ne se déboutonna jamais."

"Udum et molle lutum es: nunc, nunc properandus et acri Fingendus sine fine rota."

"Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta supellex."

"Grand, gloomy and peculiar, he sat upon the throne, a sceptred hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his awful originality."

"Optimum et emendatissimum existimo, qui ceteris ita ignoscit, tanquam ipse quotidie peccet; ita peccatis abstinet, tanquam nemini ignoscat."

"Good-humor only teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests and maintains the past."

"Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child."

"Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust, Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust."

"No man's defects sought they to know; So never made themselves a foe. No man's good deeds did they commend; So never rais'd themselves a friend."

"So much his courage and his mercy strive, He wounds to cure, and conquers to forgive."

"He that sweareth Till no man trust him. He that lieth Till no man believe him; He that borroweth Till no man will lend him; Let him go where No man knoweth him."

"Nie zeichnet der Mensch den eignen Charakter schärfer als in seiner Manier, einen Fremden zu zeichnen."

"Devout yet cheerful, active yet resigned."

"Was never eie did see that face, Was never eare did heare that tong, Was never minde did minde his grace, That ever thought the travell long, But eies and eares and ev'ry thought Were with his sweete perfections caught."

"It is of the utmost importance that a nation should have a correct standard by which to weigh the character of its rulers."

"Da krabbeln sie num, wie die Ratten auf der Keule des Hercules."

"Gemeine Naturen Zahlen mit dem, was sie thun, edle mit dem, was sie sind."

"Quæris Alcidæ parem? Nemo est nisi ipse."

"Messieurs, nous avons un maître, ce jeune homme fait tout, peut tout, et veut tout."

"It is energy—the central element of which is will—that produces the miracles of enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is the main-spring of what is called force of character, and the sustaining power of all great action."

"Lax in their gaiters, laxer in their gait."

"There is no man suddenly either excellently good or extremely evil."

"Worth, courage, honor, these indeed Your sustenance and birthright are."

"Yet though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behaviour; and to love her is a liberal education."

"It's the bad that's in the best of us Leaves the saint so like the rest of us! It's the good in the darkest-curst of us Redeems and saves the worst of us! It's the muddle of hope and madness; It's the tangle of good and badness; It's the lunacy linked with sanity Makes up, and mocks, humanity!"

"High characters (cries one), and he would see Things that ne'er were, nor are, nor e'er will be."

"The true greatness of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual."

"His own character is the arbiter of every one's fortune."

"A man should endeavor to be as pliant as a reed, yet as hard as cedar-wood."

"Brama assai, poco spera e nulla chiede."

"Fame is what you have taken, Character's what you give; When to this truth you waken, Then you begin to live."

"The hearts that dare are quick to feel; The hands that wound are soft to heal."

"Such souls, Whose sudden visitations daze the world, Vanish like lightning, but they leave behind A voice that in the distance far away Wakens the slumbering ages."

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control."

"And one man is as good as another—and a great dale betther, as the Irish philosopher said."

"None but himself can be his parallel."

"Whoe'er amidst the sons Of reason, valor, liberty and virtue, Displays distinguished merit, is a noble Of Nature's own creating."

"Just men, by whom impartial laws were given, And saints, who taught and led the way to heaven!"

"Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed A fairer spirit, or more welcome shade."

"Quantum instar in ipso est."

"Uni odiisque viro telisque frequentibus instant. Ille velut rupes vastum quæ prodit in æquor, Obvia ventorum furiis, expostaque ponto, Vim cunctam atque minas perfert cœlique marisque, Ipsa immota manens."

"Accipe nunc Danaum insidias, et crimine ab uno Disce omnes."

"Il [le Chevalier de Belle-Isle] était capable de tout imaginer, de tout arranger, et de tout faire."

"Lord of the golden tongue and smiting eyes; Great out of season and untimely wise: A man whose virtue, genius, grandeur, worth, Wrought deadlier ill than ages can undo."

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you."

"Formed on the good old plan, A true and brave and downright honest man! He blew no trumpet in the market-place, Nor in the church with hypocritic face Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace; Loathing pretence, he did with cheerful will What others talked of while their hands were still."

"One that would peep and botanize Upon his mother's grave."

"But who, if he be called upon to face Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined Great issues, good or bad for humankind, Is happy as a lover."

"Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, Nor thought of tender happiness betray."

"The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength and skill."

"I think there should be no occasion on which it is absolutely, as a point or rule of law, impossible for a man to redeem his character."

"To rake into the whole course of a man's life is very hard."

"An accused man should have the benefit of the presumption of integrity which arises from the virtue of a lifetime."

"We would not suffer any raking into men's course of life, to pick up evidence that they cannot be prepared to answer."

"You have no right, for the purpose of justifying a libel, to inquire into a man's life and opinions."

"There is in many, if not in all men, a constant inward struggle between the principles of good and evil; and because a man has grossly fallen, and at the time of his fall added the guilt of hypocrisy to another sort of immorality, it is not necessary, therefore, to believe that his whole life has been false, or that all the good which he ever professed was insincere or unreal."

"In my opinion the best character is generally that which is the least talked about."

"Means of knowledge is the foundation of the general inference of character."

"In a doubtful case, a good character will have some weight with the Court, but in a clear conviction, it can be of no avail."

"There never has been a great and beautiful character, which has not become so by filling well the ordinary and smaller offices appointed of God."

"Men and brethren, a simple trust in God is the most essential ingredient in moral sublimity of character."

"Our character is but the stamp on our souls of the free choiceof good or evil we have made through life."

"The materials of the first temple were made ready in solitude. Those of the last also must be shaped in retirement; in the silence of the heart; in the quietness of home; in the practice of unostentatious duty."

"A man is what he is, not what men say he is. His character no man can touch. His character is what he is before his God and his Judge; and only himself can damage that. His reputation is what men say he is. That can be damaged; but reputation is for time, character is for eternity."

"When the captain throws out his sheet-anchor, and the ship "rides at anchor," as it is called, there is a great strain on every link of that chain; and if one bad link breaks, off goes the anchor, and the ship is driven before the winds, and may be destroyed. Now, our character is very much like the chain; one bad piece vitiates and spoils it. So we must have a pure character."

"I have learned by experience that no man's character can be eventually injured but by his own acts."

"Man can have strength of character only as he is capable of controlling his faculties; of choosing a rational end; and, in its pursuit, of holding fast to his integrity against al! the might of external nature."

"Whatever capacities there may be for enjoyment or for suffering in this strange being of ours, and God only knows what they are, they will be drawn out wholly in accordance with character."

"Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us."

"Character is the product of daily, hourly actions, and words, and thoughts; daily forgivenesses, unselfishness, kindnesses, sympathies, charities, sacrifices for the good of others, struggles against temptation, submissiveness under trial. Oh, it is these, like the blending colors in a picture, or the blending notes of music, which constitute the man."

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, 'and not on marble."

"Modern engineers, after having erected a viaduct, insist upon subjecting it to a severe strain by a formal trial trip, before allowing it to be opened for public traffic; and it would almost seem that God, in employing moral agents for the carrying out of His purposes, secures that they shall be tested by some dreadful ordeal, before He fully commits to them the work which He wishes them to perform."