Happiness comes from understanding one basic principle. Some things are within our control and some things are not. Our opinions, ambitions, desires, and aversions are in our control. We can change the contents of our inner character. Our body, wealth, fame, and social status are not in our control. They are external to us and not our concern.
Epictetus
A man’s character is his fate.
-Heraclitus
1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
10. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
-William J. H. Boetcker
What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.
-Eleanor Powell
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
—Helen Keller
I know for sure what we dwell on is who we become.
-Oprah Winfrey
Be careful of what you often think about. If it’s something negative, you can become a negative person. On the other hand, if it’s something positive, you’ll become more positive. Try to think on the bright side of things when you can.
Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have life itself.
-Walter Anderson
बड़ा ना होवे गुणन बिन, बिरद बड़ाई पाय |
कहत धतूरे सो कनक, गहनो गढ़ियो ना जाय ||
Bada na hove gunan bin,birad badai paye
Kahat dhatoore so kanak, gehno gadiyo na jaye
No one’s great without qualities, how much ever they may be praised
Thornapple is called gold, ornaments cannot be made of it
Not mere praise but your character makes you great
Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Maintaining our principles despite distractions or temptations or fear is called Character.
Radhanath Swami
A man is known by the company his mind keeps.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.
William M. Bulger
Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
John Wooden
If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
William James
True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character. Aristotle
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