Character is needed because people are unconscious. Character is just a lubricant; it helps you to run your life in a smooth way. George Gurdjieff used to say character is like a buffer. Buffers are used in railway trains; between two compartments there are buffers. If something happens, these buffers prevent the compartments from clashing with each other. Or it is like springs: cars have springs so you can move smoothly. The springs go on absorbing the shocks; they are called shock absorbers. That’s what character is: it is a shock absorber.
