Charles Murray Quotes

Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great. To many people, being nice in order to be liked is more important. There's equal merit in that, but you must not confuse being good with being liked.

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

Persevere in virtue and diligence.

The highest qualities of character... must be earned.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back upon himself.

We don't possess this job and this job doesn't possess us. We have to make some very tough decisions. If it means falling on the sword, it means falling on the sword.

Not what they want but what is good for them.

Every time I say 'no' to a small temptation, I strengthen my will to say 'no' to a greater one.

Oftentimes the easy decision and comfortable decision is not the right one.

I have tried hard to be a good person. It's something I live for.

I want to create a better environment for the kids who look up to me. I want them to know I'm not a perfect man, but I am a man who is willing to pay the price to do what is right. That's who I am.

When you love someone and care about them, you want what's best for them, and it's always the hardest thing to realize maybe you aren't what's best for them, how hard you try.

What makes a man is when you go against your own instincts to do to the right thing.

It's a full time job - trying to be at peace in my life, trying to be a better person and be best in every way I can be, be a good brother, be a good actor and a good human being.

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

Men, not children or servants, tempered and taught to the end; Cleansed of servile panic, slow to dread or despise, Humble because of knowledge, mighty by sacrifice.

Championships are mythical. The real champions are those who live through what they are taught in their homes and churches. The attitude that 'We've got to win' in sports must be changed. Teach your youngsters, who are the future hope of America, the importance of love, respect, dedication, determination, self-sacrifice, self-discipline and good attitude. That's the road up the ladder to the championships.

Develop discipline of self so that you do not have to decide and re-decide what you will do when you are confronted with the same temptation time and time again. You need only decide some things once.

The good devout man first makes inner preparation for the actions he has later to perform. His outward actions do not draw him into lust and vice; rather it is he who bends them into the shape of reason and right judgement. Who has a stiffer battle to fight than the man who is striving to conquer himself.

To build character of purpose and integrity is our high mark, and that cannot be done in a world where there are no adverse elements.

He cannot be vertuous that is not rigorous.

Character - Some day, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long-continued process.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life.