Do what you know, and perception is converted into character, as islands and continents were built by invisible infusories, or, as these forest leaves absorb light, electricity, and volatile gases, and the gnarled oak to live a thousand years is the arrest and fixation of the most volatile and ethereal currents.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. We can only see what we are, and if we misbehave we suspect others.

Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary.

The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops – no, but the kind of man the country turns out. Our people are slow to learn the wisdom of sending character instead of talent to Congress. Again and again they have sent a man of great acuteness, […]

A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; – read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing.

Human character evermore publishes itself. You think, because you have spoken nothing when others spoke, and have given no opinion on the times, on the church, on slavery, on marriage, on socialism, on secret societies, on the college, on parties and persons, that your verdict is still expected with curiosity as a reserved wisdom. Far […]