Sydney J. Harris Quotes

Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him.

It is of little traits that the greatest human character is composed.

We all have a great deal of admirable qualities, and we all have some that could probably be improved upon.

There appears to be but two grand master passions or movers in the human mind, namely, love and pride. And what constitutes the beauty or deformity of a man's character is the choice he makes under which banner he determines to enlist himself. But there is a strong distinction between different degress in the same thing and a mixture of two contraries.

Strong moral character results from consistent correct choices in the trials and testing of life. Your faith can guide you to those correct choices.

It is quite impossible to understand the character of a person from one action, however striking that action may be.

Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify.

It took me years to learn that character is fate and that no one can be made over.

The force of character is cumulative.

We can all become better than we are.

Our intellectual development in the field of science has outstripped our human development in the field of character.

In life, unlike in movies, people don't change - what's the word I'm looking for? - absolutely. They change a bit, slowly.

The one thing I have discovered is that we all have challenges; the challenges vary, but our response to the challenges makes us people we are.

The thing about Steven Seagal is that he clearly wants to be a great person, but he just doesn't know how.

It's not always easy to do the right thing. But, doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character.

Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also - if this isn't too grand a word - our tragedy.

A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.

It is necessary, then, to give the child the possibility of developing according to the laws of his nature, so that he can become strong, and, having become strong, can do even more than we dared hope for him.

It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse.

[On Peter III:] He did not have a bad heart; but a weak man usually has not.

A man's errors are what make him amiable.

Virtue is not always amiable.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

What will tell in the end will be character and not a knowledge of letters.

There is no man suddenly either excellently good or extremely evil, but grows either as he holds himself up in virtue or lets himself slide to viciousness.