Quotes about Character

Our Lord never taught against the urge to high achievement, but He did expose and condemn unworthy motivation.

Neither strident nor flamboyant, God's servant conducts a ministry that appears almost self-defacing. What a contrast to the arrogant self-advertising of so many hypesters today, both in and out of the church.

Spiritual leadership requires superior spiritual power, which can never be generated by the self. There is no such thing as a self-made spiritual leader. A true leader influences others spiritually only because the Spirit works in and through him to a greater degree than in those he leads.

I am in fact a Hobbit, in all but size.

Our thoughts make us what we are.

Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, for your character is what you are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than the one who believes. You can be almost as stupid as a cabbage, as long as you doubt. The fashion of the age has identified mental sharpness with a pose, not with genuine intellectual method and character.

Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasure; but if we cultivate it only for pleasure's sake, we are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because we can never have the virtue.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue too passes current all over the world.

Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue.

Virtue is akin to holiness, an attribute of godliness.