"Many people seem to worry themselves a
great deal more over the things they cannot help than over the things that they
can. . . . This want of proportion is doubtless observable in myself. Do I
think more of the accidents of birth, fortune, and personal appearance than of
the self that I have created? For I myself am responsible for myself. 'To be
born a gentleman is an accident; to die one is an achievement.' Other things,
then, I may not be able to help, but myself I can. As I am at this very moment,
as my character is—truthful or untruthful, pure or impure, patient or
impatient, slow to wrath or quick-tempered, eager, enthusiastic, energetic, or
lazy and dull and wasteful of time—I have no one to thank but myself . . . the
fact remains that I myself alone am responsible for my own character; for
character is an artificial thing that is not born, but made."
— Fr. Bede Jarrett, Classic Catholic
Meditations, p. 371-2
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