To Mr. Pope, epistle I, l. 28 (1730).
“Character, not circumstances, makes the man.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
"Democracy and Education" http://web.archive.org/20071031084046/www.historycooperative.org/btw/Vol.4/html/222.html, speech, Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn NY (30 September 1896)
“Nature magically suits the man to his fortunes, by making these the fruit of his character.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Fate
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Brian Jacques (1939–2011) British fiction writer known for Redwall animal fantasy novels
Source: Taggerung
Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) English-American novelist and essayist
"A Fun-House Mirror" (1972), pp. 107-108
The Good Word & Other Words (1978)
“Never make excuses. Your friends don't need them and your foes won't believe them.”
John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach
Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Mark Twain in Eruption: Hitherto Unpublished Pages About Men and Events (1940) edited by Bernard DeVoto
Margot Asquith (1864–1945) Anglo-Scottish socialite, author and wit
The Autobiography of Margot Asquith (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963) p. 63. (1920).
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
Three Worlds, Three Summers — But Not the Summer Just Past.
