Quotes on the Primacy of Character Education

Warren Buffett, America's most successful investor, on the primacy of character in choosing a business partner: ''I think you'll probably start looking for the person that you can always depend on; the person whose ego does not get in his way; the person who's perfectly willing to let someone else take the credit for an idea as long as it worked; the person who essentially won't let you down, who thought straight as opposed to brilliantly.'' (Quoted by Andrew Kilpatrick in ''Of Permanent Value'')

"Try not to be a person of success, but rather a person of virtue." — Albert Einstein

On the football program at the University of Georgia, which has a full-time assistant coach for character and leadership. ''In 10 years from now, if all these men are better men because they went to Georgia, I'm more interested in that than national championships and public opinion. If a guy comes back and says he is a better man or better husband or father, or better person because of going through our program, that would be more gratifying to me.'' University of Georgia coach Mark Richt: ''Bulldog Course Teaches Team Class,'' by Michelle Hiskey, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dec. 5, 2002, pp. A1 & A20)

''After over thirty years on Wall Street, I have seen many firms who thirty or even twenty years ago occupied the front rank, recede into positions of comparative unimportance, and I have seen other firms, who two or three decades ago were quite unimportant, come to the front and become leaders in domestic and international finance. The reason is they had been more honest than those who were the leaders at one time.'' (Jacob Schiff, who led the investment firm Kuhn, Loeb & Company to an industry leader.)

''Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.'' (Warren Buffett, who became the 2nd wealthiest man in the USA by understanding and in investing in great companies. From Omaha World Herald, February 1, 1994)

"The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back." — Abigail Van Buren

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." — Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he would never be found out.'' — Lord Macaulay

''When men speak evil of you, live so nobody will believe them.'' — Plato

''To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.'' — Former President Theodore Roosevelt

"To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right. — Confucius

''Universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians because we don't provide a framework of values to young people who more and more are searching for it.'' — Steven Mueller, president of Johns Hopkins University

'My whole philosophy is that we build men. Incidentally, we move freight.'' — Arthur Imperatore, president of A-P-A Transport, a company that rose to the top of its industry

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To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." — Theodore Roosevelt

"I believe that the highest priority for business today is an ethical, responsible workforce." — Jack Smith, Chairman, General Motors Corporation

"The good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience." — Jim Collins, Good to Great