通过对比结构强调了人的主体地位，逻辑清晰有力。
Character is a great and indispensable help to success. Character is a crystallized habit, the result of training and conviction. Every character is influenced by heredity, environment, and education. But beyond these, if man is not to a great extent the architect of his own character, he would be a fatalist and an irresponsible creature of circumstances.
Instead of saying that man is a creature of circumstance, it would be more accurate to say that man is the architect of circumstance. From the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds a hovel. Bricks and mortar remain just bricks and mortar until the architect transforms them into something more.
The true way to gain much is never to desire to gain too much.
Wise men do not care for what they cannot have.
性格是取得成功不可缺少的助力。性格是一种固化成形的习惯，是不断培养并坚信于此的结果。每个人的性格都会受到遗传因素、环境和教育的影响。但除此之外，如果人在很大程度上不能成为自己性格的构筑者，那么他就会沦为宿命论者，从而成为环境的失败造物。
与其说人是环境的造物，不如说人是环境的建筑师更贴切些。同样的材料，有人能用其建造出宫殿，而有人只能建成简陋的小屋。在建筑师将其变成他物之前，砖泥依然是砖泥。
想得到的多就永远不要奢望太多。
智者不会在意他们得不到的东西。