“It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.”
Life of Agesilaus II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
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Plutarch251
ancient Greek historian and philosopher 46–127Related quotes
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Source: The Freedom of a Christian (1520), p. 76
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Goethe; or, the Writer,” p. 272
1850s, Representative Men (1850)

“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)
Antoine François Prévost (1697–1763) French novelist
J'ai à peindre…un caractère ambigu, un mélange de vertus et de vices, un contraste perpétuel de bons sentiments et d'actions mauvaises.
Avis de l'auteur, p. 30; translation p. 3.
L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731)
“Good laws are produced by bad actions.”
Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius book Saturnalia
Saturnalia (c. 400). Alternately translated as "begot" instead of produced and "manners" instead of actions.