*How Would You Define Character?*

During my deep musings and thoughts today, I was thinking about the qualities that I admire in people that I will allow close to me. Right up at the top of my list were the qualities, good character and trustworthiness. Then I began to question how would I define them?
Character is made up of the virtues that engender trust: honesty, integrity, loyalty, courage, self-discipline, and devotion.
Trust is the greatest external reward for good character, although the internal rewards are even greater. If one is in business, trust is a commodity of unestimable value, while if one is in love, it is the house in which one lives.
Trust is hard-earned and easily lost, as one lie or act of disloyalty can throw into question years of honesty and fidelity. Maybe a consistently good character could stand a bit of battering with most people, but not me. When trust is lost, it is gone forever even if the character is admirable.
Society requires a certain level of trust to function, which is why societies that value good character function better than those that do not. For wealth comes from productive labor, which requires order and cooperation, which require trust.
Therefore, each person of good character is a contributor to the general wealth and happiness, and each person of bad character is a detriment. As a model for one's family, friends and acquaintances, one multiplies one's character, good or bad, throughout society, and so each individual, perhaps more than is commonly realized, is truly responsible for the proper functioning of society, upon which the personal well-being of all depends.
The greatest internal reward for good character is self-esteem, which, although enhanced by the comments of others, sits squarely upon the rock of one's self-evaluation. And because one trusts those of good character oneself, one knows very well whether one is oneself, trustworthy and in possession of those qualities that win the esteem of others. The greatest penalty, then, is low self-esteem, rarely admitted even to oneself, but still the source of much internal suffering. This is how I view or define character and trust, both being of utmost importance in all of my relationships.