George MacDonald Quotes

I think all of us make the mistake of thinking we're going to change people when we get together. But we're not. People are who they are. And people change in their own time.

The sisters and brothers that you meet give you the materials which your character uses to build itself. It is said that some people are born great, others achieve it, some have it thrust upon them. In truth, the ways in which your character is built have to do with all three of those. Those around you, those you choose, and those who choose you.

People don't change who they are. They only change what they do with it.

There can be no progress-real, moral prgress-except in the individual and by the individual himself.

It is not so much the being exempt from faults as the having overcome them that is an advantage to us; it being with the follies of the mind as with weeds of a field, which if destroyed and consumed upon the place where they grow, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung there.

People become who they are. Even Beethoven became Beethoven.

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

Before you can do something you must first be something.

I prefer stories about people who are, in a sense, trying to find better versions of themselves.

Self-reform automatically brings about social reform.

I've noticed a growth in Spike and definitely in myself. I feel like the seeds that he planted in me five years ago have ripened up to a place where I could even tackle this role in the way that I did.

Regeneration can come only through a change of heart in the individual.

I think the thing about keeping your character fresh is, when you change as an individual, you have to flow with it.

Some people are just born human, the rest of us, we take a lifetime to get there.

Who you are becoming is more important than what you are accumulating.

What you are the world is. And without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world.

You cannot build up a character in a solitude; you need a formed character to stand a solitude.

Change happens at the level of the individual

Before you can do something, you must first be something.

Don't depend on death to liberate you from your imperfections. You are exactly the same after death as you were before. Nothing changes; you only give up the body. If you are a thief or a liar or a cheater before death, you don't become an angel merely by dying. If such were possible, then let us all go and jump in the ocean now and become angels at once! Whatever you have made of yourself thus far, so will you be hereafter. And when you reincarnate, you will bring that same nature with you. To change, you have to make the effort. This world is the place to do it.

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

To the one, a little natural moderation and quietness of temper may be sufficient to conduct us: but to the other, we can only attain by much discipline and slow advances; and when we think we have made great way, we shall often find reason to confess in the hour of trial, that we had greatly, far too greatly, over-rated our progress.

The struggle for your own character is the struggle for the nation's character.

The real value of setting and achieving goals lies not in the rewards you receive, but in the person you become as a result of reaching your goals.