Character - in things great and small - is indicated when a man (or person) pursues with sustained follow-through what he feels himself capable of doing.

You'll never attain it unless you know the feeling.

Whatever liberates our spirit, without also giving us mastery over ourselves, is destructive.

When I say to the Moment flying; 'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!' Then bind me in thy bonds undying, And my final ruin I will bear!

Do the duty which lies nearest to thee.

With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails.

A school of art or of anything else is to be looked on as a single individual, who keeps talking to himself for a hundred years, and feels an extreme satisfaction with his own circle of favorite ideas, be they ever so silly.