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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.
Author: Unattributed Author
Source: sometimes attributed to R.L. Stevenson, Kansas Gov. Hoch, E.T. Fowler, and others
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She was and is (what can there more be said?)
On earth the first, in heaven the second maid.
Author: Unattributed Author
Source: Tribute to Queen Elizabeth, Manuscript 4712 in British Museum
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They love, they hate, but cannot do without him.
Author: Aristophanes
Source: see Plutarch's "Life of Alcibiades" (Langhorne's translation)
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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.
Author: Richard Harris Barham
Source: Brothers of Birchington
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Knight without fear and without reproach.
[Fr., Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche.]
Author: Richard Harris Barham
Source: Brothers of Birchington
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Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free;
Patient of toil; serene amidst alarms;
Inflexible in faith; invincible in arms.
Author: James Beattie
Source: The Minstrel (bk. I, st. 11)
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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.
Author: Henry Ward Beecher
Source: Life Thoughts
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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.
Author: Henry Ward Beecher
Source: Life Thoughts
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Most men are bad.
Author: Bias of Priene
Source: his motto, inscribed on Temple of Apollo at Delphi,
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But now, after that ye have known God, or rather or known of God,
how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye
desire again to be in bondage?
Author: Bible
Source: Galatians (ch. IV, v. 9)
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And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to
myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us
not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of
you be puffed up for one against another.
Author: Bible
Source: I Corinthians (ch. IV, v. 6)
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A great unrecognized incapacity.
[Fr., Une grande incapacite inconnue.]
Author: Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck
Source: of Napoleon III, while minister to Paris
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Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
Author: Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck
Source: of Napoleon III, while minister to Paris
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No, when the fight begins within himself,
A man's worth something.
Author: Robert Browning
Source: Men and Women--Bishop Blougram's Apology
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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?
Author: A.H. Bullen
Source: Old Plays (II, 60, Dick of Devonshire)
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Are you a bromide?
Author: Frank Gelett Burgess
Source: title of an essay in "Smart Set"
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He was not merely a chip of the old Block, but the old Block
itself.
Author: Edmund Burke
Source: About Wm. Pitt-Wraxall's Memoirs (vol. II, p. 342)
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All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural
propensities.
Author: Edmund Burke
Source: Letters--Letter I--On a Regicide Peace
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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.
Author: Richard Eugene Burton
Source: Black Sheep
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Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so head he many vices; . . .
he had two distinct persons in him.
Author: Robert Burton
Source: Anatomy of Melancholy--Democritus to the Reader
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Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious,
Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto VI, st. 7)
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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.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto XVI, st. 97)
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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.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Lara (canto I, st. 18)
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Genteel in personage,
Conduct, and equipage;
Noble by heritage,
Generous and free.
Author: Henry Carey
Source: The Contrivances (act I, sc. 2, l. 22)
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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.
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Source: Essays--Goethe
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What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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Resolved: never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
Author: Jonathan Edwards
Source: None
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A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.
Author: Vernon Howard
Source: None
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You can measure a man by the opposition it takes to discourage him.
Author: Robert C. Savage
Source: None
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Don't compromise yourself, you're all you've got.
Author: Janis Joplin
Source: None
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Only the mediocre are always at their best!
Author: Johnathan Winters
Source: None
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Vitanda est improba Siren Desidia. (That shameful Siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.)
Author: Horace
Source: None
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There are four types of people: Smart and lazy, Smart and full of energy, Stupid and lazy, Stupid and full of energy
Author: Leif Summerfield
Source: None
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Inner liberty can be judged by how often a person feels offended, for you can no more insult a mature man that you can paint the air.
Author: Vernon Howard
Source: None
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Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Author: Abraham Lincoln
Source: None
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Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these help instead of hinder, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
Author: James Buckham
Source: None
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Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
Author: Henry Ward Beecher
Source: None
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.
Author: Anonymous
Source: None
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A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
Author: G. C. Lichtenberg
Source: None
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The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and ;Independence.
Author: Edward Rickenbacker
Source: None
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Character is a victory, not a gift.
Author: Anonymous
Source: None
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A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's.
Author: Jean Paul Richter
Source: None
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Every man has three characters -- that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.
Author: Alphonse Karr
Source: None
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Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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You must look into people, as well as at them.
Author: Lord Chesterfield
Source: None
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Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance. It is character which builds an existence out of circumstance. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels; one warehouses, another villas; bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect can make them something else.
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Source: None
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There is no such thing as a "self-made" man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, ;or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.
Author: George Matthew Adams
Source: None
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Character is what you are in the dark.
Author: Dwight Moody
Source: None
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What you are thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.
Author: Benjamin Disraeli
Source: None
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