“Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose”

“Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose” is a saying that has been included in many lists of quotations. Dr. Roy L. Smith, a Methodist minister and popular newspaper columnist who died at age 75 in 1963, wrote “Sentence Sermons” in 1926, which included, “Your Good Character—Is what you have left after the bank has failed.” In Smith’s book, Some Wild Notions I Have Known (1927), he wrote:
 
“Nothing succeeds like character. Your character is what you have left after the bank has failed, the crops are ruined, the house is burned, and the family has died with the flu.”
 
“Character is what you have left when you have been stripped of everything else you can lose” was cited in print in 1933.
 
 
13 August 1926, Marshall (MI) Evening Chronicle, pg. 1, col. 7:
SENTENCE SERMONS—By the REV. ROY L. SMITH
Your Good Character—
Is what you have left after the bank has failed.
Is the thing you make yourself—your reputation is given to you.
Is the only thing you have which no man can steal.
Is worth more to you than the friendship of any banker.
Is the only way you have of proving your divinity.
Is the image of God within you.
Is what you have left when the slanderers have done their worst.
 
Google Books
Some Wild Notions I Have Known
By Roy L. Smith
New York, NY: Abigdon Press
1927
Pg. 33:
Nothing succeeds like character. Your character is what you have left after the bank has failed, the crops are ruined, the house is burned, and the family has died with the flu.
 
11 December 1933, Fairbanks (AK) Daily News-Miner, pg. 2, col. 1:
Character is what you have left when you have been stripped of everything else you can lose.
 
Google Books
14,000 Quips & Quotes:
For Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers
By E. C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1990, ©1980
Pg. 66:
Your character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose.
 
Twitter
The Quotations Page
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“Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose.” - Evan Esar http://tqpage.com/39103
11:00 AM - 17 Apr 07
 
Google Books
“The Greatest Quotations of All-Time”
By Anthony St. Peter
Xlibris Corporation (Xlibris.com)
2010
Pg. 118:
Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose. Evan Esar