character Quotes

The main goal of a statesman is to create a certain moral character in their citizens, specifically a tendency towards virtue and performing good actions.

We must be neither cowardly nor rash but courageous.

It's braver to control your own desires than to defeat enemies, because overcoming yourself is the hardest win.

[Meanness] is more ingrained in man's nature than Prodigality; the mass of mankind are avaricious rather than open-handed.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not... ...

We are what we do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.

They - Young People have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things - and that means having exalted notions. They... ...

Character is determined by choice, not opinion.

People become house builders through building houses, harp players through playing the harp. We grow to be just by doing things which are just.

Those who are not angry at the things they should be angry at are thought to be fools, and so are those who are not angry in the right way, at the right time, or with the right persons.