I am a firm believer in Character Education in public education. Some people argue that education shouldn't be teaching values to children because that is the parent's job, but in so many households children are not exposed to simple virtues that society relies on to operate smoothly. I'm talking about respect, responsibility, caring, honesty, trustworthiness, compassion,and many more character traits that are unarguably the foundation of a civilized society. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." --Sam Ewing
"You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction."--George Horace Lorimer
"A great teacher never strives to explain his vision. He simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself."--a fortune cookie I got in 2008
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -—Thomas Edison
"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."--Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973)
"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." --Mark Twain (1835-1910)
"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not." --Oprah Winfrey (1954-) in Good Housekeeping
"I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." --Ettiene De Grellet
"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built." --Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), My Day
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." --Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." --Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
"Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open." --Elmer G. Letterman
"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends." --Japanese Proverb
"Character is higher than intellect...A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think." --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." --Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
"When in doubt, tell the truth." --Mark Twain (1835-1910)
"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." --Aesop (620BC-560BC), The Lion and the Mouse
"It has never been my object to record my dreams, just to realize them." --Man Ray, O Magazine, September 2002
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead (1901-1978).
"Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid." --John Keats (1795-1821)
"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one." --James A. Froude (1818-1894)
"Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways, it can change someone else's life forever." --Margaret Cho, weblog, 03-11-04
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." --James Joyce (1882-1941)
"When you have given nothing, ask for nothing." --Albanian Proverb
"Our lives improve only when we take chances--and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves." --Walter Anderson
"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read." --Mark Twain
"Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day." --Sally Koch
"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." --Helen Keller
"Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it." --Cullen Hightower
"Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on?" --Peter McWilliams, Life 101
"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever." --Chinese Proverb
"Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you." --Spanish Proverb
"Don't wait for people to be kind, show them how." --Author unknown
"If somone were to pay you ten cents for every kind word you ever spoke and collect five cents for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?" --Nonpareil
"Assert your right to make a few mistakes. If people can't accept your imperfections, that's their fault." --Dr. David M. Burns
"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them--every day begins the task anew." --St. Francis de Sales
"What you don't see with your eyes, don't invent with your mouth." --Jewish Proverb
"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." --Mark Twain
"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." Benjamin Franklin
"Today, make an investment in someone else's happiness." --Author Unknown
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