david strasser: character

Showing posts with label character. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2013

Post #1306

A man is not necessarily intelligent because he has plenty of ideas, any more than he is a good general because he has plenty of soldiers.
—Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort

Friday, June 28, 2013

Post #1286

A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.
—Euripides

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Post #1248

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
—James D. Miles

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Post #1177

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
—Confucius

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Post #1132

Talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of human life.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Post #1123

Education has for its object the formation of character.
—Herbert Spencer

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Post #1116

Character is not made in crisis - it is only exhibited.
—Robert Freeman

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Post #1104

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.
—Japanese Proverb

Friday, October 26, 2012

Post #1095

Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom.
—Thomas Carlyle

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Post #1002

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
—Abraham Lincoln

Friday, June 08, 2012

Post #973

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.
—John N. Mitchell

Saturday, April 14, 2012

So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.
—Lucretius

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Post #894

The self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates.
—Thomas Szasz

Friday, March 16, 2012

Post #893

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge one for yourself.
—James A. Froude

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Post #452

The true test of character is...how we behave when we don't know what to do.
—John Holt

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Post #340

Even if strength fail, boldness at least will deserve praise: in great endeavours even to have had the will is enough.
—Propertius

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Post #335

Who is wise?

He that learns from everyone.

Who is powerful?

He that governs his passions.

Who is rich?

He that is content?

Who is that?

Nobody.

—Poor Richard's Almanac

Friday, August 27, 2010

Post #329

I weigh the man, not his title; 'tis not the king's stamp can make the metal heavier or better.
—William Wycherley

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Post #323

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.
—Samuel Smiles

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Post #321

Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.
—William Hazlitt

The Penalty of Leadership

In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. ¶Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. ¶In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. ¶The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. ¶When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. ¶If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone – if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a -wagging. ¶Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. ¶Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. ¶Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. ¶Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. ¶The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. ¶The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. ¶There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. ¶And it all avails nothing. ¶If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader. ¶Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. ¶That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. ¶That which deserves to live — lives.
written by Theodore F. MacManus