Thomas Fuller Quotes

More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice.

No one is born without vices, and he is the best man who is encumbered with the least.

So, to praise others for their virtues can but encourage one's own efforts.

Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

By bringing shame to a person, how could one expect to make him a better man?

… the field of action is not the field of intellect, it is the field of character; and change or development of character is always slow work.

Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also - if this isn't too grand a word - our tragedy.

Men become old, but they never become good.

In order for good to blossom it must be cultivated and exercised by constant practice, and to be truly righteous there is required a daily pruning of the evil growth of our characters by a daily repen- tance from sin.

I just want to be as good a person as I can be.

Is it possible, I wonder, for a man to truly change? Or do character and habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?

Walking humbly, you are more of a man than you were when you walked proudly.

Knowing how bad you could be is a great encouragement to being good.

Wisdom is the right application of knowledge; and true education...is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and Godlike character.

The ideal of character always runs beyond the attainment.

Every complete man has his genius. True virtue is genius.

No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.

It is not to be expected that human nature will change in a day.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

There's no doubt West Point impacted who I am... It has an enormous emphasis, not only on military aspects, but character development. Whether it's the honor code, or the interactions you have, both with the cadet leadership and the academy leadership, every place you are is a character test.

He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.

There is good and there is bad in every human heart, and it is the struggle of life to conquer the bad with the good.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.