A society that promotes Dr. Jekylls through books of virtue may actually be fostering Mr. Hydes. . . .

"Force of character" is the persistence of the incorrigible anomalies, those traits you can't fix, can't hide, and can't accept. Resolutions, therapy, conversion, the heart's contrition in old age — nothing prevails against them, not even prayer. We are left realizing that character is indeed a force that cannot succumb to willpower or be reached by grace. The force of its flaws mocks all the virtuous books, whose efforts to enlighten are candles in the wind.

James Hillman, The Force of Character