Martin Luther King once said that if you have nothing to die for then you have nothing to live for. Should your life be that important? A life based on such character?
Where does character come from? Is it something that is simply there and must be pulled forth? Is it a gentle, swilling current waiting to be turned into a rip tide? What of your water of life? Does it run deep? After death, will many forget you as they wade through your calm wake or will they tumble and hurdle your torrent waters, decades to come?
Where do you stand? Do you conform to play it safe? To stay out of harms way? Is it better to burn out than to fade away? Where do you stand?
Do you take a regular inventory of your weaknesses? Do you know them? (Just talk to your friends, they know). And if you don't work on them, you will find them sneaking up on you in the middle of a sleepless night, in a failed life, if you wait too long. Regret is the great life tax we must pay at death's door. Your job is to look for deducaitons. Don't be a regretter. Take Red's advice, "You either gotta get livin' or get dyin."
"Everyone needs to twelve-step their lives. Don't simply wait until you've got an addiction." Anonymous
"Don't be afraid if things seem difficult in the beginning. That's only the initial impression. The important thing is not to retreat; you have to master yourself."-- Olga Korbut
"Only when you've worked on yourself long enough can you be of great worth to others. Don't be selfish by doing nothing, build yourself to the benefit of others."-- Jeffrey P. Brown
"Our lives improve only when we take chances -- and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves."-- Walter Anderson
"The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none."-- Thomas Carlyle
"To the world you may be just one person, but to one person, you are the world."-- Unknown
"Whatever you are, be a good one."-- Abraham Lincoln
"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."-- Alexander Hamilton
"If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good."-- Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
"Here I stand, I could not do otherwise."-- Martin Luther
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by how he has attained liberation from the self."-- Albert Einstein
"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being."-- Jackie Robinson
"To love one's self is the beginning of a life-long romance."-- Oscar Wilde
"If you aren't good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you'll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren't even giving to yourself."-- Barbara de Angelis
"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it."-- Dr. M. Scott Peck
"There's always room for improvement, you know--it's the biggest room in the house."-- Louise Heath Leber
"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive -- the risk to be alive and express what we really are."-- Don Miguel Ruiz
"I am a big believer in the 'mirror test.' All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there, that you've done your best."-- John McKay
"Talk to yourself every morning. By looking into those eyes, she or he will tell you everything you need to know. That is, if you're brave enough to go there." Jeffrey P. Brown
"How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people."-- Edward White Benson
"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self."-- Aristotle
"You never find yourself until you face the truth."-- Pearl Bailey
"Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open."-- Elmer G. Letterman
"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
"Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body...."-- Henry David Thoreau
"He that loseth his honesty hath nothing else to lose."-- John Lyly
"It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are."-- Roy Disney
"Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it."-- Rene Descartes
"How do you know when you've built great character? When you can no longer be offended." Jeffrey P. Brown
"You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire Universe, deserve your love and affection."-- Buddha
"I have learned silence from the talkative; tolerance from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to those teachers."-- Kahlil Gibran
"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich."-- Tao Te Ching
"Understanding is knowing what to do; wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is actually doing it."-- Tristan Gylberd
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."-- Confucius
"We are all equal in our infinite ignorance." Anonymous
"If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth."-- Anthony de Mello
"There is only one good -- knowledge; and only one evil -- ignorance."-- Socrates
"It comes down to this: What kind of father are you? What kind of husband are you? What kind of coach or teammate are you? What kind of son are you? What kind of friend are you? Success comes in terms of relationships."-- Joe Erhmann
"Develop a cause beyond yourself. Try to leave the world a better place because you were here."-- Joe Erhmann
"At the end of our life, we ought to be able to look back over it from our deathbed and know somehow the world is a better place because we lived, we loved, we were other-centered, other-focused."-- Joe Erhmann
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