Novalis Quotes

Character is perfectly educated will.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage, and determination.

Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.

You're always concerned for your character. You should be.

It's not always easy to do the right thing. But, doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character.

Character is not the enemy of self-expression and personal freedom, it is their necessary precondition.

Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character.

We often pray for purity, unselfishness, for the highest qualities of character, and forget that these things cannot be given, but must be earned.

We do not need more knowledge, we need more character!

Character is the one thing we make in this world and take with us into the next.

Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by how one thinks and acts.

Virtue is an inner strength. It expands your nature.

The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.

Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.

Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat; Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.

Character teaches above our wills.

A big part of honesty is self-discipline, personal resolve, and taking pride in who you are as a person and what each action means to your character.

Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character.

True success depends more on character than on intellect.

What will tell in the end will be character and not a knowledge of letters.

Go beyond what you feel like doing and do what's right. Every time you do what's right when you don't feel like it, you are growing.

Confidence on the outside begins by living with integrity on the inside.

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy - they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

There is no royal road or ready way to virtue.

'As a man who knows how to make his education into a rule of life not a means of showing off; who can control himself and obey his own principles.' The true mirror of our discourse is the course of our lives.