What is character? It is that quality of man which is going to make a man, in an hour of strain, do the just and, if possible, the generous thing.
Interpretation
Character is defined by our actions during challenging times, reflecting moral integrity and generosity.
In this quote, Douglas Southall Freeman emphasizes that true character is revealed when a person faces significant pressure or hardship. It is during these moments of strain that an individual's moral compass is tested, and the response—whether it is to act justly or generously—defines their essence and integrity as a human being.
In practice
This quote can be used during a leadership seminar to discuss the importance of character in decision-making under pressure.
Character is the essence of all that a man has seen in life and regards as high and exalted. Character is like truth: the substance of the things that a man has forgotten but the substance of the things that are worth remembering in life.
Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so .
Ah! the clock is always slow; it is later than you think.
You can win the rat race but you're still a rat.
It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, it has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- free trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
Then he reflected that reality does not usually coincide with our anticipation of it; with a logic of his own he inferred that to forsee a circumstantial detail is to prevent its happening. Trusting in this weak magic, he invented, so that they would not happen, the most gruesome details.
We do not want, as the newspapers say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world.
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