The Ego Trick (baggini, Julian) / quote 197 of 254
A hierarchy of character traits
For the sake of simplicity, we can crudely schematise any given individual’s character into a hierarchy of types. The weakest kind of character traits are those which are passive and variable, neither self-chosen nor constant. Slightly more robust are passive, constant traits, which at least exhibit a kind of consistency. Next are active, variable traits, which, being self-chosen, are more fully ‘ours’ but lack constancy. The traits which are most ‘characterful’ are those which are both active and constant, ones we have in part chosen for ourselves and we display with a measure of consistency.