"Talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of human life." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him, cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln?" Robert Coles

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving." Dale Carnegie

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."Sam Ewing

"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it." Abraham Lincoln

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." Oscar Wilde

"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him." Leo Aikman

"I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become." Carl Jung

"Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them." Carl von Clausewitz, 1780 - 1831

"Success builds confidence, failure builds character." Unknown

"All people have three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they are, and that which they think they are." Alphonse Karr

"The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none." Thomas Carlyle, writer (1795-1881)

"One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this:  To rise above the little things." John Burroughs

"The most futile thing in this world is any attempt, perhaps, at exact definition of character. All individuals are a bundle of contradictions -- none more so than the most capable." Theodore Dreiser, author (1871-1945)

"Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records." William A. Ward

"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." Thomas J. Watson

"Dignity is a mask we wear to hide our ignorance." Elbert Hubbard

"Backbone beats wishbone every time." Anonymous

"We are either like a thermometer or like a thermostat. The first is controlled by the environment, the second controls the environment." Anonymous

“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and writer (1884-1962)

“The demons are our own limitations, which shut us off from the realization of the ubiquity of the spirit . . . each of these demons is conquered in a vision quest.” Joseph Campbell

“Integrate what you believe into every single area of your life. Take your heart to work, and ask the most and best of everybody else too. Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth -- don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.” Meryl Streep

“It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.” Walter Linn

“To confront a person with his own shadow is to show him his own light.” Carl G. Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961)

“There is a transcendent power in example. We reform others unconciously when we walk uprightly.” Anne Sophie Swetchine

“Who you are today is a product of what you did yesterday. Who you are tomorrow is a product of you do today. Make every second count!” Christie Jean-Baptiste

“Sainthood emerges when you can listen to someone's tale of woe and not respond with a description of your own.” Andrew V. Mason MD

“What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.” Henry Van Dyke

“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” James A. Michener

“Kites rise highest against the wind--not with it.” Winston Churchill

“The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.” John Holt

“A man's conscience, like a warning line on the highway, tells him what he shouldn't do - but it does not keep him from doing it.” Frank A. Clark

“What we have done for ourselves alone, dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains immortal.” Albert Pine

“Hard work is the accumulation of the easy things you didn't do when you should have.” Anonymous

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Freedom is being able to live with the consequences of your decisions.” James X. Mullen

“People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.” Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

“It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.” Henry David Thoreau