Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel Quotes

One's only rival is one's own potentialities. One's only failure is failing to live up to one's own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends.

Happiness is not the end of life: character is.

Those who follow the part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow the part which is little are little men.

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

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.

Our ideals are our better selves.

There is no real excellence in all of this world which can be separated from right living.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

To aim at the best and to remain essentially ourselves is one and the same thing.

No one can make the most of himself until he looks upon his life as a magnificent possibility, the materials for a great masterpiece, to mar or spoil which would be a great tragedy.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

Life is a great university for the unfolding of the mind, for developing character. In choosing our life work, when we are free to choose, we should remember this, and choose that which will call the biggest man or woman out of us and not that from which we can coin the most dollars.

I tell them how what matters is becoming the best you can be at whatever you're doing.

When all is said and done the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Virtue is the truest nobility.

Man should be ever better than he seems.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Success is not in what you have, but who you are.

The first object of my endeavours was the means to become perfect and happy.

But whether it be dream or truth, to do well is what matters. If it be truth, for truth's sake. If not, then to gain friends for the time when we awaken.