On the record
What a man was is ever more important than what he did, because it is upon what he was that all his achievement depends and his value and meaning to his fellow men must finally rest.
Said by
Henry Cabot Lodge
Source
gutenberg.orgHenry Cabot Lodge: “What a man was is ever more important than what he did, because it is upon what he was that all his achievement depends…”
Editor's note · Context
Lodge emphasizes the importance of a person's character over their achievements in this reflection on Theodore Roosevelt.
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He flung aside the suggestion of supreme power, not simply as dishonorable and unpatriotic, but because such a result would have defeated the one great and noble object at which he aimed.
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