CIRCUMSTANCES DON’T MAKE THE MAN, THEY ONLY REVEAL HIM TO HIMSELF

It is difficult circumstances that show real men.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men.

A man's every action is inevitably conditioned by what surrounds him and by his own body.

Most men are a little better than their circumstances give them a chance to be.

Men have their virtues and their vices, their heroisms and their perversities; men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but possess and practice all that there is of good and bad here below. Such is the general rule. Temperament, education, the accidents of life, are modifying factors. Outside of this, everything is ordered arrangement, everything is chance. Such has been my rule of expectation and it has usually brought me success.

Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.

A man's actions are determined by necessity, external and internal.

A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.

It is not true that men never change; they change for the worse, as well as for the better. It is not true they are ungrateful; more often the benefactor rates his favors higher than their worth; and often too he does not allow for circumstances. If few men have the moral force to resist impulses, most men do carry within themselves the germs of virtues as well as of vices, of heroism as well as of cowardice. Such is human nature — education and circumstances do the rest.

A man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.

Most men, like plants, have hidden characteristics that chance brings to light.

Uncommon Experiences Create Uncommon Men.