People of character do the right thing, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of personal integrity over the influence of external circumstances.
Michael Josephson's quote highlights that individuals of strong character act in alignment with their values and principles, irrespective of the potential impact their actions may have on the world. It asserts that true integrity comes from within; such individuals stand firm against societal pressures and remain steadfast in their commitment to doing what is right.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage students to uphold their values.
The way we treat people we think can't help or hurt us - like housekeepers, waiters, and secretaries - tells more about our character than how we treat people we think are important. How we behave when we think no one is looking or when we don't think we will get caught more accurately portrays our character than what we say or do in service of our reputations.
What you meet in another being is the projection of your own level of evolution.
The great lie is that it is civilization. It's not civilized. It has been literally the most blood thirsty brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet. That is not civilization. That's the great lie, is that it represents civilization.
The human soul, provided it is pure and strong enough, can contact the unseen in waking life as well as in dreams: all that is required is withdrawal of the soul from the tumult of sensory life.
The man of the future who will redeem us not only from the hitherto reigning ideal but also from that which was bound to grow out of it, the great nausea, the will to nothingness, nihilism; this bell stroke of noon and of the great decision that liberates the will again and restores its goal to the earth and his hope to man; this Antichrist and anti-nihilist; this victor over God and nothingness - he must come one day.
Whether talking about addiction, taxation [on cigarettes] or education [about smoking], there is always at the center of the conversation an essential conundrum: How come we're selling this deadly stuff anyway?
No honest man will argue on every side
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