Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.
Interpretation
True character reveals itself over time, and moral actions have intrinsic consequences.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes that a person's character is defined by their actions and will inevitably be revealed, regardless of attempts to conceal it. Emerson suggests that unethical behaviors, like theft and murder, do not lead to true wealth or power but rather highlight the integrity of individuals, while acts of kindness, such as giving alms, perpetuate a moral richness that benefits society as a whole.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of ethics in leadership.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.
The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn-the less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.
When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. I was greatly excited at the thought of the first lucky passerby who would receive a gift in this way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe. . . . I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.
Don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.
If you count the sunny and the cloudy days of the whole year, you will find that the sunshine predominates.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.