“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
Epictetus on Character
“As you are careful when you walk not to step on a nail or turn your ankle, so you should take care not to do any injury to your character at the same time.”
~Epictetus
Malcolm Cowley on Success
“They tell me that success is a terrible test of people. Thank God I’ve never had to undergo it.”
~ Malcolm Cowley
Joan Didion on Reputation
“The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others — who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something people with courage can do without.”
~ Joan Didion
Joan Didion on Character
“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.”
~ Joan Didion
Haruki Murakami on the Self
“No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That’s all.”
~ Haruki Murakami / Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Abraham Lincoln on Power
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
Heraclitus on Character
“Character is destiny.”
~ Heraclitus
Marcus Aurelius on Harm
“It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you — inside or out.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
Epictetus on Character
Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
~ Epictetus