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We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.
Fulton J. Sheen
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Our character is shaped by the things and people we love.

Fulton J. Sheen's quote suggests that our identities and moral character are influenced by what we choose to love. If we direct our affections towards base or lowly things, our own nature will degrade; conversely, by loving noble and virtuous pursuits, we elevate ourselves and grow in virtue.

Themes

LoveNobilityCharacterInfluenceVirtue

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal growth.

More from Fulton J. Sheen

Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
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A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.
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Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!
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No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
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The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.
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Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
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