The Road to Character
In his book, The Road to Character, The New York Times columnist and bestselling author, David Brooks, challenges readers to rebalance the scales between focusing on external success—“résumé virtues”—and, instead, elevate and value core inner principles.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Video: Let Your Conscience By Your Guide ]
The Road to Character is a reminder (just as SemperVerus is) that we must strengthen our character—our moral compass—to stay true to what is right and stay true to our aim in life.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, The Door of Leadership Swings on the Hinge of Character ]
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Shift
Chapter 2: The Summoned Self
Chapter 3: Self-Conquest
Chapter 4: Struggle
Chapter 5: Self-Mastery
Chapter 6: Dignity
Chapter 7: Love
Chapter 8: Ordered Love
Chapter 9: Self-Examination
Chapter 10: The Big Me
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Spiritual Fitness Self-Defense: Seeing Temptation as a Threat ]
Quotes to ponder from The Road to Character
• “Character is built in the course of your inner confrontation. Character is a set of dispositions, desires, and habits that are slowly engraved during the struggle against your own weakness. You become more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and refined enjoyment. If you make disciplined, caring choices, you are slowly engraving certain tendencies into your mind. You are making it more likely that you will desire the right things and execute the right actions. If you make selfish, cruel, or disorganized choices, then you are slowly turning this core thing inside yourself into something that is degraded, inconstant, or fragmented. You can do harm to this core thing with nothing more than ignoble thoughts, even if you are not harming anyone else. You can elevate this core thing with an act of restraint nobody sees. If you don’t develop a coherent character in this way, life will fall to pieces sooner or later. You will become a slave to your passions. But if you do behave with habitual self-discipline, you will become constant and dependable.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, What a Leaf-Sweeper’s Answer Teaches About Personal Leadership ]
• “The self-effacing person is soothing and gracious, while the self-promoting person is fragile and jarring. Humility is freedom from the need to prove you are superior all the time, but egotism is a ravenous hunger in a small space—self-concerned, competitive, and distinction-hungry. Humility is infused with lovely emotions like admiration, companionship, and gratitude.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, How Does Your Character Measure Up? ]
• “Start your work from where you live, with the small concrete needs right around you. Help ease tension in your workplace. Help feed the person right in front of you. Personalism holds that we each have a deep personal obligation to live simply, to look after the needs of our brothers and sisters, and to share in the happiness and misery they are suffering.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Every Small Decision Leads to Winning or Losing in Spiritual Warfare ]
• “Self-respect is not the same as self-confidence or self-esteem. Self-respect is not based on IQ or any of the mental or physical gifts that help get you into a competitive college. It is not comparative. It is not earned by being better than other people at something. It is earned by being better than you used to be, by being dependable in times of testing, straight in times of temptation. It emerges in one who is morally dependable. Self-respect is produced by inner triumphs, not external ones.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Secure Your Base (Your Soul) ]
• “You have to give to receive. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself. You have to conquer your desire to get what you crave. Success leads to the greatest failure, which is pride. Failure leads to the greatest success, which is humility and learning. In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, The Importance of Being Civil and Polite ]
• “Sometimes you don’t even notice these people, because while they seem kind and cheerful, they are also reserved. They possess the self-effacing virtues of people who are inclined to be useful but don’t need to prove anything to the world: humility, restraint, reticence, temperance, respect, and soft self-discipline. They radiate a sort of moral joy. They answer softly when challenged harshly. They are silent when unfairly abused. They are dignified when others try to humiliate them, restrained when others try to provoke them. But they get things done. They perform acts of sacrificial service with the same modest everyday spirit they would display if they were just getting the groceries. They are not thinking about what impressive work they are doing.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Be Like Ernest Shackleton ]
• “Change your behavior and eventually you rewire your brain.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Make Your Bed, Change Your World ]
• “Since self-control is a muscle that tires easily, it is much better to avoid temptation in the first place rather than try to resist it once it arises.”
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Statue of Billy Graham Unveiled in Statuary Hall of US Capitol ]
• “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart.”
[ Read SemperVerus articles on the character topic of BE ]
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