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'Moral character' or 'character' is an evaluation of an individual's moral qualities. The concept of ''character'' can imply a variety of attributes including the existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, or loyalty or of good behaviors or habits. The concept of moral character is not specific to a particular religion, culture, or country.

Contents

Quotes

Exemplary literature

External links

Quotes

★ “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals [...] We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate..” - Martin Luther King Jr. [1]

★ "Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character." - Albert Einstein

★ "We define character as the sum of those qualities of moral excellence that stimulates a person to do the right thing, which is manifested through right and proper actions despite internal or external pressures to the contrary." - United States Air Force Academy

★ "Character is doing what's right, even when no one is looking" - unknown

★ "Character develops itself in the stream of life." - Goethe

Exemplary literature

This was a genre in classical, medieval and Renaissance literature consisting of lives of famous figures, and using these (by emphasising good or bad character traits) to make a moral point. Examples include

★ Suetonius's ''De vita Caesarum'' (''Lives of the Twelve Caesars'')

★ Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives''

★ Jerome's ''De viris illustribus''

★ Petrarch's ''De viris illustribus''

★ Chaucer's ''The Monk's Prologue and Tale'' and ''The Legend of Good Women''

★ Boccacio's ''On Famous Women'' and ''Concerning the Falls of Illustrious Men''

★ ''Christine de Pizan's' The Book of the City of Ladies

★ ''Mirror for Magistrates'' by various Tudor authors

External links

★ Concepts of moral character, historical and contemporary - ''Stanford University Encyc. of Philosophy''

★ College Makeover: Morality Based Learning - by President S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon College, in ''The Slate''

★ Harvard's Robert Coles on Raising Moral Children - ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer''