A man’s character is what he really is. It is his real moral condition. It has been defined as ‘the distinctive mark of an individual’. It depends partly upon inborn qualities and partly on training in youth and the circumstances in which a person has been brought up.
It can be cultivated by forming good habits in childhood. “Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character”. If we sow good habits, we build up a good character.
If we allow bad habits to develop in us, our character becomes bad. It is therefore of great importance that children should be presented with the best models for imitation. Ideals of courage, truth, simplicity, honesty, and purity should be constantly placed before them to follow and live up to them.
We form good or bad habits not only in childhood but later on too. We all grow a little every day, either better or worse. It is, therefore, needs food that we watch ourselves day by day.
What goes to make up a good character? There are many qualities that go to make up the character. First comes truth. Lorde Averbury says, “But there is one quality it is essential without which a man is not a man without which no really great work was ever achieved-that is truth in the inward parts.”
Next comes justice. A man of good character should love to be out even-handed justice to all. But justice should be tempered with mercy. If it is our duty, to be frank, we ought to be sweet and courteous. Sincerity, honesty, generosity, and purity in speech thought and action- such virtues entitle a person to be called a man of good character.
The character is a very important factor in man’s life. Good character is more important than health wealth or happiness. “When the character, is lost everything is lost” is hundred per cent true. “Leaving aside the moral good that it does, as a mere question of getting on in the world, the character will do more for a man then cleverness.”
We ought to be however slow to judge others for none of us is wholly good wholly bad.
