A good character is something you must make for yourself. It cannot be inherited from parents. It cannot be created by having extraordinary advantages. It isn't a gift of birth, wealth, talent or station. It is the result of your own endeavor. It is the reward that comes from living good principles and manifesting a virtuous and honorable life.
Interpretation
Good character is developed through personal effort and is not a result of external factors.
This quote emphasizes that character is not something one is born with or receives from their family, wealth, or talents; instead, it is a trait that individuals must cultivate through their actions and choices. It highlights the importance of living according to good principles and striving for a virtuous life as the fundamental ways to build a commendable character.
In practice
In a graduation speech, to emphasize the importance of personal development.
Today, I would like you to pause, ponder, and think of the value of an immortal soul, especially the ones entrusted to you as parents. Where are your priorities? Have you committed yourself to give the sufficient time necessary to train your children?
Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by one family prayer, one scripture study session, one family home evening, one book read aloud, one song, and one family meal at a time. They know that the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily parenting is among the most powerful and sustaining forces for good in the world. The health of any society, the happiness of its people, their prosperity, and their peace all find common roots in the teaching of children in the home.
Take a chance on faith - not religion, but faith. Not hope, but faith. I don’t believe in hope. Hope is a beggar. Hope walks through the fire. Faith leaps over it.
On being asked by someone how he could become famous, Diogenes responded: 'By worrying as little as possible about fame
Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.
When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.
It's not enough merely to exist. Every man has to seek in his own way to make his own self more noble and to relize his own true worth.
A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
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