Young men in our Year 9 Character Education classes were asked to find a short quote, whakatauki or saying that they believe has an important message about being a good person.

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." - John Wooden.  I took this quote to mean that reputation is not something you should care about, as it is what others think of you. What you should think about and work on is character because it is who you are and how you act.

"Learn to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else." - Leonardo da Vinci.  This tells us that everything is connected e.g. you help someone with something, then eventually they might help you if you need help.

"The way I see it if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain" -Dolly Parton.  I think that this shows that to have nice things in life you have to put up with hardships.

"Good people see the good and bring out the best in other people." - Roy T. Bennett.

"Whakanuia te tangata ringa raupā - Respect a person with calloused hands."  Like our school motto, Nihil Boni Sine Labore, Nothing Achieved Without Hard Work.  We should respect people who work hard.

"Integrity, the choice between what's convenient and what's right." - Tom Dungy.  To me, this quote is about preserving integrity and trying to do the right thing even when no one is looking. It is doing the right thing even when it doesn't necessarily benefit you.

"Success to me is being a good person, treating others well." - David LaChapelle.  My interpretation of this is to be successful in life you must respect others and treat them well.

“How good a person you are depends only on how much compassion and sympathy you have in your heart for others.” ― Nitin Namdeo.  Being a good person isn't being nice to yourself, it is how much you show to others that define you and how good a person you are.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King Jr.  We are no longer people once we start to ignore the bad things in the world - you will never be remembered for doing nothing.

"Never regret being a good person, to the wrong people. Your behaviour says everything about you, and their behaviour says enough about them."  I think that this quote means that even if the person isn't a good person, there is no reason why you shouldn't be good to them. You could potentially be a role model to them. Your behaviour is like reading your life history, it gives away who you are (but doesn't mean you can't change). It is always good to make a good first impression but it has to be you. No second face. Just you.

"He aroha whakatō, he aroha ka puta mai.  If kindness is sown, then kindness is what you shall receive."  We all want people to be nice to us so we should be nice to other people.

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."  I believe this means that if you want something good and precious, you actually have to work hard and push through the things that you don't like. You can't just expect things to land on your lap and have others do everything for you.

"Keep being a good person, but don't waste your time trying to prove it."  This quote was made by a fictional character named Miles Edgeworth. The character is represented as the antagonist of the lawyer video game, Ace Attorney. In this game, you play as the protagonist, Phoenix Wright, a hero who fights not in a battleground, but rather in a court of law. Phoenix Wright is a defense attorney who battles the prosecutors to find the truth and reveal the true culprits. Miles Edgeworth is a genius prosecutor and good friend of Phoenix Wright.  I believe that the meaning behind this quote is that being boastful about your goodwill ruins the entire point of being a good person in the first place. This quote encourages the idea of being humble about your personality as that that will lead to even better fortune.

“If everyone were a good person, it’d obviously be a better world.” Aaron Paul

“Be the kind of person who not only pretends to be good but is also a really good person.” - Nitin Namdeo.  I think this quote means that acting good and actually being a good person are two different things, and you should strive to be a good person rather than just pretending to be good.

"A truly good person will speak truth, act with truth, and stand for Truth. A truly good person is not afraid to think from their heart; therefore, allowing nonconformist decisions, viewpoints, and perspectives to lead their life. By following their heart, they stand with their conscience, and only with God." - Suzy Kassem.  I think this quote is very important because it speaks about being true to yourself, true to others, and how it effects how "good" of a person you are. It is impossible to be a "good person" and also be untruthful, whether it is to yourself, or anyone else. In any situation.

"The first step to being a good man is this: You must deeply feel the burden of the stones someone else is carrying." - Mehmet Murat Ildan.  I think this is saying that to be a good person, you need have sympathy for others. If you can understand the troubles and the expectations people must deal with in their life, it will make you a kinder, less self-centered person.

“Be a good person, but don’t waste time trying to prove it.”  The quote to me infers to the reader that you should actively spend time being congenial and benevolent to others but simultaneously retain the aspects of modesty and quiet integrity.  Kindness will not always be acknowledged or rewarded, but the very act is held by your moral conscience, simply knowing you did something nice is ultimately the most rewarding prospect in life.

"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you." - Fred DeVito. I think this is a great quote because it tells us that if you want to achieve something, you must work hard. Simple things won't change a person because they are not learning anything new or gaining any new information.

“I define a good person as somebody who is fully conscious of their own limitations.” John Bradshaw

“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” - Kevin Durant.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky.  To me, this quote is about always trying. There is always a chance to achieve. 

"Be a good person but don't waste your time to prove it." - Unkown.  This means that doing good will be recognized without having to prove it.

"Leaders always chose the harder right rather than the easier wrong." - Orrin Woodward

"Success to me is being a good person, treating people well." - David LaChapelle.  For me, this quote is saying that to be successful you must get along with people and treat them with respect. Because if you get along with people you will go far in life.

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who will do him absolutely no good." - Samuel Johnson.

"Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice." - Edwin Louis Cole.  This means that you chose to mature. You could be an immature adult or a mature child. Both of those are choices that only you can make.

"Life is so much easier with a sense of humour."

"Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself."

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost." - Billy Graham

"Never stop being a good person because of the bad people."  This means just because lots of people are bad, doesn't mean it is cool to be bad just to fit in.

"Humour is the best way to make the unbearable bearable" - Mary Ann Shaffer.  The easiest way to make people happy is humour because it makes them laugh #lol

"Happiness isn't by chance, but by choice" - Jim Rhon.  This means that people should try to be happy, not just make it happen by chance.

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." – Dolly Parton.  I think this quote means that you must work to get the result.  There is no easy way to get what you want.

“Good intentions pave many roads, not all of which lead to hell.” - Neal Shusterman.  This means that often things we consider evil originally have good intentions and that we should really think about what the consequences of our actions are.