Harvey Pekar Quotes

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

I try to be a good person - I don't always succeed, but that's what I'm shooting for.

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.

Being an adult, you've already suffered enough from your own mistakes, and the world, to come to this as a humble human being. So it's not like, "I'm going to do the right thing because it advances me," as much as it's like, "I'm going to do the right thing because this puts me closest to the dream I had as a 10-year-old kid."

I'm a good person, but with many defects.

I try to be a good person. I know what my downfalls are, so that's a good thing.

The leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out, starting with himself.

The walls of that grand edifice called a good character have to be worked at during life.

The day people around me stop questioning my character is the day my character begins to grow vulnerable.

How could I get up there and say, 'People, we've got to do better,' when I was the poster child for everything that was wrong? I've always believed leaders don't ask others to do what they're unwilling to do.

I try to be the best man I can for the day.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

I've always believed in people's capacity for goodness. I still believe that people are good. What I'm not so trusting about anymore is their relationship to their own goodness.

I am human like everyone else. I am aware that there are people who look up to me. When mistakes are made, they aren't intentional, and I constantly push myself to be a better person.

I've tried to do away with lying in my life in the last few years, but it's hard.

What, pray, does it profit a man to teach others, and to be prating always about virtue, in high-sounding words, if he fails to give heed to his own instructions?

Don't forget your own self while preaching to others.

It's easy to point out the evil in other people, but that can be found in all of us. That selfishness, that is something we all have in us. Sometimes you are successful at dealing with it, and sometimes you are not.

I'm a good man, and I'm gonna become a better man.

One's character is reflected in their choices after all. I'm glad to have been making ones that make my heart soar.

Try to be a better person everyday.

I think the biggest thing with me is that I just pride myself on being the best human being I can be.

I attempt to do my best and do what's right, but that doesn't mean I'm always right.

I'm not saying I'm perfect. But I'm someone who analyses and reflects on what I do, whether it's in keeping with the ethics that I talk about in public. That's how I've been all my life.

I'm not a perfect human being by any stretch of the imagination. But there is always this little voice inside of me that keeps me where I know I need to be.