Defining Character

One of the reasons I wanted to bring this debate to my blog is that LAGuy seemed to be wanting to end the debate and I don't think it has really begun. First of all, I think we are talking past each other to some extent because of a disagreement about what character means. While both of us have some idea that it means integrity with one's ideas and actions. LAGuy seems to limit character to mean just this minimal honesty. So, with some help I would like to define character more clearly.

OneLook.com has a quick definition of character: " the inherent complex of attributes that determine a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions."

The etymology from dictionary.com: "[Middle English carecter, distinctive mark, imprint on the soul, from Old French caractere, from Latin charactr, from Greek kharaktr, from kharassein, to inscribe, from kharax, kharak-, pointed stick.]"

And well-known quotes:

Sow an act...reap a habit; Sow a habit...reap a character; Sow a character...reap a destiny.--George D. Boardman

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.--Marcus Aurelius

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.--Tryon Edwards

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle

Truthfulness is the main element of character. --Brian Tracy

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath. --Solon

Reputation is what the world thinks a man is; character is what he really is. --Anonymous

Everyone tries to define this thing called Character. It's not hard. Character is doing what's
right whne nobody's looking. --Anonymous

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

Character is what you are in the dark. --Dwight Moody

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. --Abraham Lincoln

How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seedtime of character? --Thoreau

There never was a good knife made of bad steel. --Benjamin Franklin

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back. --Abigail Van Buren

"Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character." — Albert Einstein

"Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike." — Theodore Roosevelt

“Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.” — Aristotle



Of course the rule on this blog concerning quotes is: Always End with Chesterton.

When some English moralists write about the importance of having character, they appear to mean only the importance of having a dull character.

When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.

It is terrible to contemplete how few politicians are hanged.

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog."

"It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong."

"Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice."

There is only one thing that it requires real courage to say, and that is a truism.

There is no such thing as fighting on the winning side: one fights to find out which is the winning side.