Character

GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732-1799)

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."

JOHN ADAMS (1735-1826)

The people "have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge-- I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers."

DWIGHT EISENHOWER (1890-1969)

The qualities of a great man are "vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character."

CALVIN COOLIDGE (1872-1933)

"Character is the only secure foundation of the state."

WOODROW WILSON (1856-1924)

"If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig."

THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858-1919)

"Americanism is a question of principle, of purpose, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace or creed or line of descent."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me."

RONALD REAGAN (b.1911)

"You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans."