Values
Something intrinsically valuable or desirable.
Merriam-Webster
The principles that guide ethical behavior.
Ethics Resource Center
Modes of conduct … means by which … human enterprises should be conducted.
James MacGregor Burns, Transforming Leadership: The Pursuit of Happiness (2003)
Enduring beliefs … Values influence the decisions that we make and impact the courses of action that we take.
Susan S. and Thomas D. Kuczmarski, Values-Based Leadership (1994)
Standards and patterns of choice that guide persons and groups toward satisfaction, fulfillment and meaning.
Richard Morrill, Chancellor and Distinguished University Professor of Ethics and Democratic Values at the University of Richmond
What an individual wants or desires or ascribes worth to.
Kevin Ryan and Karen Bohlin, Building Character in Schools: Practical Ways to Bring Moral Instruction to Life
Ethics
The discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.
Merriam-Webster
What is good, right or how we ought to behave.
Ethics Resource Center
The conditions necessary to elicit the best from the human spirit ….
Washington Ethical Society
Character
The complex of mental and ethical traits marking and often individualizing a person, group or nation … moral excellence and firmness.
Merriam-Webster
Good character consists of under-standing, caring about and acting upon core ethical values.
Character Education Partnership
Enduring beliefs … Values influence the decisions that we make and impact the courses of action that we take.
Susan S. and Thomas D. Kuczmarski, Values-Based Leadership (1994)
The disposition to live ethically in a coherent way over time.
Harvard Center for Ethics and the Professions
Good character demands more from us than an intellectual commitment, heartfelt desire, or mechanical fulfillment of responsibilities. It requires virtues, those habits of the head, heart, and hand that enable us to know the good, love the good, and do the good.
Kevin Ryan and Karen Bohlin, Building Character in Schools: Practical Ways to Bring Moral Instruction to Life