Daily Inspiration Quote by Charles Henry Parkhurst

Parkhurst’s line treats character less like a halo and more like a harness. “Impulse” is the raw animal of the self: appetite, anger, vanity, even sudden generosity. He doesn’t pretend it disappears with piety. He assumes it’s there, strong, and probably useful. The moral work happens in the “reined down” part, an image that makes virtue feel physical: hands on leather, tension, direction. In a culture that often flatters spontaneity as authenticity, Parkhurst argues that the self you can trust is the self that can be steered.

The real pivot is “steady continuance.” Character isn’t the single dramatic choice, the tearful conversion, or the heroic stand when the spotlight finds you. It’s endurance. He’s quietly demoting the one-time moral performance and promoting the unglamorous practice: showing up, staying honest when bored, staying kind when tired, staying sober when no one is watching. The subtext is almost political: reliable people make reliable institutions. Parkhurst, a prominent reform-minded minister in Gilded Age New York, spent years attacking civic corruption and machine politics; he knew that public rot isn’t fueled by a lack of strong feelings but by a lack of sustained restraint.

There’s also a pragmatic theology here. He’s not selling purity; he’s selling governance. Character, in this view, is self-rule that lasts long enough to become a pattern others can depend on.