In brief, people with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character, a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses
ground to other, more instantly negotiable virtues. . . . Nonetheless, character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.
ground to other, more instantly negotiable virtues. . . . Nonetheless, character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.
~ Joan Didion
On Self-Respect
Didion was in her twenties when she wrote this. Moral nerve is one of the sharpest definitions of character I have encountered in all forty something of my years.
