Meaning of “Character is one of the greatest motive powers…”

Life Without Principle, The Atlantic Monthly, 1863; represented Wikisource text. The line follows Thoreau’s claim that a community cannot buy a wise person away from work that genuinely occupies him.

Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. The brief statement introduces Smiles’s comparison of character with property: an enduring possession expressed through goodwill, esteem and an honourably earned reputation.

Unspoken Sermons; Project Gutenberg #9057. The short excerpt comes from a longer explicitly theological hierarchy of forms of life and must be read in that religious setting.

Self-Help, Chapter XIII, “Character—The True Gentleman,” Project Gutenberg #935. Near the opening of the chapter, Smiles defines character as moral order embodied in the individual and describes people of character as the conscience and motive power of society.

Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Part One, Section II, “Habits and Will,” printed page 38, Project Gutenberg #41386. Dewey says character would not exist if habits operated in insulated compartments; “Character is the interpenetration of habits” summarizes his account of habits continuously modifying and reinforcing one another. This is part of Dewey’s historical philosophical / early social-psychological framework, not a modern clinical definition of personality.

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.