Moral Character Quotes - Page 2

• The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Character, Hypocrite, Perfection

  Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (2016). “Stoic Six Pack: Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Golden Sayings, Fragments and Discourses of Epictetus, Letters from a Stoic and The Enchiridion”, p.82, Enhanced Media Publishing

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• The loss of these tastes [for poetry and music] is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

  Charles Darwin

  Character, Loss, Emotional

  "Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution".

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• Depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Being Strong, Character, Depth

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• The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

  Leon Trotsky

  Being Strong, Stay Strong, Fall

  Leon Trotsky, George Breitman, George Saunders (1977). “Portraits, political & personal”

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• We pass our values, ideas and moral character on to our children, but we do that knowing that our children are going to revise our knowledge and reshape their values. There's something very paradoxical and profound about being a parent as opposed to parenting. We put in all this effort and energy not so that we can shape a child of a particular sort, but so that all sorts of possibilities can happen in the future.

  Alison Gopnik

  Children, Character, Profound

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• I tend to think that good and evil exist and that the quantity in each of us is unchangeable. The moral character of people is set, fixed until death.

  Michel Houellebecq

  Character, Thinking, People

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• The ultimate foundation of honor is the conviction that moral character is unalterable: a single bad action implies that future actions of the same kind will, under similar circumstances, also be bad.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Character, Honor, Foundation

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “the Wisdom of Life: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.42, 谷月社

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• Humor is not an unconditional virtue; its moral character depends on its object. To laugh at the contemptible, is a virtue; to laugh at the good, is a hideous vice. Too often, humor is used as the camouflage of moral cowardice.

  Ayn Rand

  Character, Laughing, Vices

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.221, Penguin

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• It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Courage, Integrity

  Mark Twain (2013). “Autobiography of Mark Twain”, p.372, Univ of California Press

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• So great is the effect of cleanliness upon man, that it extends even to his moral character. Virtue never dwelt long with filth; nor do I believe there ever was a person scrupulously: attentive to cleanliness, who was a consummate villain.

  Benjamin Thompson

  Believe, Character, Men

  sir Benjamin Thompson (count Rumford.) (1796). “Essays, political, economical and philosophical”, p.35

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• Leadership is the sum of those qualities of intellect, human understanding, and moral character that enables a person to inspire and control a group of people successfully.

  John A. Lejeune

  Leadership, Military, Character

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• We don't usually think of what we eat as a matter of ethics. Stealing, lying, hurting people - these acts are obviously relevant to our moral character. In ancient Greece and Rome, ethical choices about food were considered at least as significant as ethical choices about sex.

  Peter Singer

  Hurt, Sex, Lying

  Peter Singer, Jim Mason (2007). “The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter”, p.3, Rodale

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• Even men of the noblest possible moral character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charms of others. Modern, no less then Ancient History, supplies us with many most painful examples of what I refer to. If it were not so, indeed, History would be quite unreadable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Character, Men, Example

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.98

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• Oh, Jeeves,' I said; 'about that check suit.' Yes, sir?' Is it really a frost?' A trifle too bizarre, sir, in my opinion.' But lots of fellows have asked me who my tailor is.' Doubtless in order to avoid him, sir.' He's supposed to be one of the best men in London.' I am saying nothing against his moral character, sir.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Character, Men, Order

  P. G. Wodehouse (2004). “Introducing Jeeves: Six Classic Stories”, p.65, Courier Corporation

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• Sir," returned Mrs. Sparsit, " I cannot say that i have heard him precisely snore, and therefore must not make that statement. But on winter evenings, when he has fallen asleep at his table, I have heard him, what I should prefer to describe as partially choke. I have heard him on such occasions produce sounds of a nature similar to what may be heard in dutch clocks. Not," said Mrs. Sparsit, with a lofty sense of giving strict evidence, " That I would convey any imputation on his moral character. Far from it.

  Charles Dickens

  Character, Winter, Giving

  Charles Dickens “Hard Times”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• All one needs to do is read - books, magazines, research the Internet - and pay attention to the influencers in their lives to discover the myriad people of strong moral character who have and still are making positive, meaningful contributions and differences in our world.

  Zig Ziglar

  Meaningful, Strong, Book

  Source: www.centerforfaithandwork.com

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• Unless the will is free, man has no freedom; and if he has no freedom he is not a moral agent, that is, he is incapable of moral action and also of moral character.

  Charles Grandison Finney

  Character, Men, Agents

  Charles Grandison Finney, George REDFORD (D.D.) (1851). “Lectures on systematic theology, embracing moral government, the atonement, etc. Revised, enlarged, and partly re-written by the Author ... Edited ... by G. Redford”, p.29

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• I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Food, Character

  Letter to Sarah Bache, January 26, 1784.

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• His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement - all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.

  William Montgomery Watt

  Integrity, Character, Greatness

  "Mohammad at Mecca". Book by William Montgomery Watt, p. 52, 1953.

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• Up until the Depression, recession had a moral character: it was supposed to purge the body economic of the greed and excess that attends a business expansion.

  James Buchan

  Character, Greed, Expansion

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• What Confucius tells us to focus on first is not how to bring stability to the world, but how to be the best possible version of ourselves. To "cultivate one's moral character" is the first step towards taking responsibility for the nation, and for society. Confucius and his disciples struggled hard to be "the best version" of themselves, but their aim in this was to better carry out their responsibilities to the society in which they lived.

  Yu Dan

  Integrity, Character, Responsibility

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• It is to be regretted that domestication has seriously deteriorated the moral character of the duck. In a wild state, he is a faithful husband.....but no sooner is he domesticated than he becomes polygamous, and makes nothing of owning ten or a dozen wives at a time.

  Isabella Beeton

  Husband, Regret, Food

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• Discipline is training that corrects and perfects our mental faculties or molds our moral character. Discipline is control gained by enforced obedience. It is the deliberate cultivation of inner order.

  Charles R. Swindoll

  Character, Order, Discipline

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• As is well known, all collectors are prepared to steal or murder if it is a question of getting another piece for their collection; but this does not lower their moral character in the least.

  Karel Capek

  Character, Doe, Pieces

  Karel Capek, M. Weatherall, R. Weatherall (1996). “War with the Newts”, p.166, Northwestern University Press

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• Our very sense of situation is now articulated by the camera's interventions. The omnipresence of cameras persuasively suggests that time consists of interesting events, events worth photographing. This, in turn, makes it easy to feel that any event, once underway, and whatever its moral character, should be allowed to complete itself - so that something else can be brought into the world, the photograph.

  Susan Sontag

  Character, Interesting, Cameras

  Susan Sontag (2011). “On Photography”, p.12, Macmillan

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