Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

A fair character is a fair fortune.

So it is more useful to watch a man in time 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 it torn off, reality remains.

Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against our faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by tellings against ourselves.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others, than you can by what others say about him!

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

Duty, honor, country. Those three hallowed words dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm.

People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked.

When you see a good man, try to emulate his example, and when you see a bad man, search yourself for his faults.

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.

Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

A fast way to demolish relationships, shatter credibility and disrespect yourself is by not following through when you say you are going to do something.

The lion doesn't turn around when the small dog barks.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.