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“The greatest worth is never measured.”
Marden distinguishes forms of personal value and character from the material measures that are easiest to count.
Source note: Architects of Fate; Project Gutenberg #21622. The sentence occurs in a passage criticizing narrow material measures of a life.
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“By doing just actions we come to be just.”
Character is formed through repeated conduct: practicing just actions helps turn justice from an abstract ideal into a stable disposition.
Source note: Nicomachean Ethics, Book II; Aristotle explains virtue as something developed through corresponding actions.
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“Character is one of the greatest motive powers in the world.”
Character is treated as an active force because reliable conduct shapes trust, influence, and the quality of choices made under ordinary pressure.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles opens the chapter by presenting character as a major moral and social force, then distinguishes its influence from intellectual talent, wealth and position.
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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.
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“Truthfulness is at the foundation of all personal excellence.”
Personal excellence is grounded in truthfulness because habits of distortion eventually weaken trust, judgment, and the consistency between principle and action.
Source note: Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles places the sentence in his discussion of veracity and reliableness, arguing that talent or genius cannot command durable confidence unless conduct can be trusted.
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“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.”
Circumstances can expose habits of thought and character that were already present, turning difficulty into information about what needs attention or change.
Source note: As a Man Thinketh; Allen uses circumstance as a mirror for character and habitual thought.