Source identified
“Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.”
The proverb ranks ethical conduct above larger income, treating the means by which wealth is obtained as more important than the amount.
Source note: Proverbs 16:8 in the King James Version.
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“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator
Greatness is stripped of spectacle and measured instead by moral clarity, goodness, and freedom from unnecessary complication.
Source note: War and Peace; the narrator’s judgment of greatness appears in the novel’s discussion of Kutuzov, simplicity, goodness and truth.
Source identified
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
Voice: Fictional character · Mariana
The line values trustworthy character above possessions or reputation inherited after death.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 3, Scene 5; the line occurs in dialogue that values honest character above material inheritance.
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“For character is itself a fortune.”
Material success is secondary to a reputation and inner standard that can survive temporary loss; character is treated as durable capital.
Source note: Self-Help, Chapter IX, “Men of Business,” Project Gutenberg #935. The line appears in the chapter’s discussion of honesty in business: Smiles argues that even temporary material loss is preferable to sacrificing character, which he describes as a fortune in itself.
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“God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
Pride is treated as a barrier while humility is presented as a posture open to correction, help, and grace.
Source note: James 4:6 in the King James Version.
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“The education of character is very much a question of models.”
People absorb conduct from examples around them, so lived models can teach more powerfully than rules that are contradicted by behavior.
Source note: Self-Help, Chapter XII, “Example—Models,” Project Gutenberg #935. Smiles argues that character education depends heavily on models because people unconsciously mould themselves after the characters, manners, habits and opinions around them.