Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Letter to Lord Holland (24 September 1813) on Napoleon, quoted in E. A. Smith, Lord Grey. 1764-1845 (Alan Sutton, 1996), p. 176.
1810s
Source: The Red Box
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Letter to Lord Holland (24 September 1813) on Napoleon, quoted in E. A. Smith, Lord Grey. 1764-1845 (Alan Sutton, 1996), p. 176.
1810s
George Monbiot (1963) English writer and political activist
"The Self-Attribution Fallacy" http://www.monbiot.com/2011/11/07/the-self-attribution-fallacy/, 7 November 2011.
Robin Hahnel (1946) American economist
Source: Panic Rules!: Everything You Need to Know about the Global Economy, 1999, p. 103
Gustave de Molinari (1819–1912) Belgian political economist and classical liberal theorist
Source: The Production of Security (1849), p. 32
Richard Blackmore (1654–1729) English poet and physician
"An Essay upon False Vertue", p. 263
Essays Upon Several Subjects (1716)
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist
“Confusing ‘Character’ with ‘Temperament’”
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Context: Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. Some people have easy temperaments and weak characters; others have difficult temperaments and strong characters.
We are all prone to confuse the two in assessing people we associate with. Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable. Of course, the optimum for a person is to possess both an easy temperament and a strong character, but this is a rare combination, and few of us are that lucky. The people who get things done tend to be prickly, and the people we enjoy being with tend to be accepting, and there seems to be no way to get around this. Obviously, there are many combinations of character and temperament, in varying degrees, so that this is only a rough generalization — but I think it is one worth remembering when we make personal judgments.