The First Quote

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Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

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There are too many quotes to choose from. Some stay with us because they are beautiful. Some because they are useful. Some because someone we loved used to say them. And some because they arrive at a particular moment and never quite leave.

When I began my current role, I decided to introduce a “Quote of the Week” that would reflect something of our college values. It was a small thing: a sentence on display, a thought to carry into the week, a way of saying what kind of community we hoped to become.

I began this role just as Billy Graham died at the age of 99. So, for the first quote, I chose one of his:

At the time, it was a tribute. Billy Graham had been one of the most recognisable Christian voices of the twentieth century. Choosing his words seemed like a simple way to mark his passing.

But the quote has stayed with me for reasons beyond the tribute.

Many of our students study Medicine and will go on to become doctors or work in public health, helping people and communities flourish. Many study Finance, Economics, or Actuarial Studies, and will make significant contributions in industry, research, business, and public life.

Health matters. Wealth matters too, especially when understood as stewardship, responsibility, and the wise use of resources.

But neither can carry the full weight of a life.

Character sits deeper.

Character is the engine room of a person. It shapes what they do with their intelligence, qualifications, opportunities, ambitions, and influence. It gives direction to their gifts. It helps determine whether success becomes generous or self-serving, truthful or compromised.

This is why character matters so much in education. We are not only preparing people to pass exams, enter professions, and build careers. We are helping form people who will carry responsibility, serve communities, tell the truth, use power well, and live for more than themselves.

That has been the thread running through much of my own life.

I have often said that I work for meaning, not money. I have spent my working life trying to help people grow and develop: as a parish minister, as a theological educator, and now as a leader in the university sector. In different settings, the work has looked different. But underneath it has been the same hope: to help grow people of character.

In the last year, I have had the privilege of joining the Sydney Character Initiative, a group of educational scholars and leaders committed to the formation of character in schools and universities. That has helped me name more clearly something I think I have cared about all along.

So, yes, I first chose Billy Graham’s quote as a tribute. It was the first Quote of the Week because he had just died, and it seemed right to honour him. But looking back, I think I was also choosing a sentence that named something central to my life’s work.

Wealth can be useful.

Health can be precious.

But character is what holds a life together.

And when character is formed well, its fruit does not remain private. It moves outward into families, workplaces, institutions, communities, and sometimes, by God’s grace, into the world.