QuoteProject
We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.
Fulton J. Sheen
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Our character is shaped by the things and people we love.

Fulton J. Sheen's quote suggests that our identities and moral character are influenced by what we choose to love. If we direct our affections towards base or lowly things, our own nature will degrade; conversely, by loving noble and virtuous pursuits, we elevate ourselves and grow in virtue.

Themes

LoveNobilityCharacterInfluenceVirtue

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal growth.

More from Fulton J. Sheen

Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
Fulton J. SheenRead
A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!
Fulton J. SheenRead
No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
Fulton J. SheenRead
The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
Fulton J. SheenRead

Similar quotes

Because they have been in love they have survived everything that life could throw at them, even their own failures.
Peter UstinovRead
Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.
Frederick BuechnerRead
Dear Valentine, I love you. Whoever you are.
Charles M. SchulzRead
But time, as well as healing all wounds, taught me something strange too: that it's possible to love more than one person in a lifetime. I remarried. I'm very happy with my new wife, and I can't imagine living without her. This, however, doesn't mean that I have to renounce all my past experiences, as long as I'm careful not to compare my two lives. You can't measure love the way you can the length of a road or the height of a building.
Paulo CoelhoRead
If you are one of earth’s inhabitants, how blest your father, and your gentle mother, blest all your kin. I know what happiness must send the warm tears to their eyes, each time they see their wondrous child go to the dancing! But one man’s destiny is more than blest—he who prevails, and takes you as his bride. Never have I laid eyes on equal beauty in man or woman. I am hushed indeed.
HomerRead
Part of my soul I seek thee, and claim thee my other half
John MiltonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.