MAKING OF PERSONALITY : SMALL THINGS GROW GREAT

Personalty  is formed by a variety of minute circumstances, more or
less under the regulation and control of the individual. Not a
day passes without its discipline, whether for good or for evil.
There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of
consequences, as there is no hair so small but casts its shadow.
It was a wise saying  ; never to give way to what is little; or by that little, however you may
despise it, you will be practically governed.
Every action, every thought, every feeling, contributes to the
education of the temper, the habits, and understanding; and
exercises an inevitable influence upon all the acts of our future
life. Thus  Personalty is undergoing constant change, for better or
for worse--either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on
the other. "There is no fault nor folly of my life," says Mr.
Ruskin, "that does not rise up against me, and take away my joy,
and shorten my power of possession, of sight, of understanding.
And every past effort of my life, every gleam of rightness or good
in it, is with me now, to help me in my grasp of this art and its
vision."
The mechanical law, that action and reaction are equal, holds true
also in morals. Good deeds act and react on the doers of them;
and so do evil. Not only so: they produce like effects, by the
influence of example, on those who are the subjects of them. But
man is not the creature, so much as he is the creator, of
circumstances:  and, by the exercise of his freewill, he can
direct his actions so that they shall be productive of good rather
than evil. "Nothing can work me damage but myself," said St.
Bernard; "the harm that I sustain I carry about with me; and I am
never a real sufferer but by my own fault."
The best sort of Personalty, however, cannot be formed without
effort. There needs the exercise of constant self-watchfulness,
self-discipline, and self-control. There may be much faltering,
stumbling, and temporary defeat; difficulties and temptations
manifold to be battled with and overcome; but if the spirit be
strong and the heart be upright, no one need despair of ultimate
success. The very effort to advance--to arrive at a higher
standard of  growth than we have reached--is inspiring and
invigorating; and even though we may fall short of it, we cannot
fail to be improved by every, honest effort made in an upward
direction.
The man of character is conscientious. He puts his conscience
into his work, into his words, into his every action .
"The man of noble spirit," says Sir Thomas Overbury, "converts all
occurrences into experience, between which experience and his
reason there is marriage, and the issue are his actions. He moves
by affection, not for affection; he loves glory, scorns shame, and
governs  and obeys  with one countenance, for it comes from one
consideration. Knowing reason to be no idle gift of nature, he is
the steersman of his own destiny. Unto the society of
men he is a sun, whose clearness directs their steps in a regular
motion. He is the wise man's friend, the example of the
indifferent, the medicine of the vicious. Thus time goes not
from him, but with him, and he feels age more by the strength of
his soul than by the weakness of his body. 
 (From Samuel Smiles , Character .)