What makes a person rare?

A medium flame, and frequent turning.

really honest but not brutal
sweet but not a push over
protective over others more than themselves
selfless

@Pandora Do you think those qualities are rare?

Three standard deviations from the mean.

When they impress me to no end.

Honesty
Integrity
Fidelity
Optimism
(all wrapped up together)

presence of mind, in the moment.

@Neizvestnaya How rare do you believe it is for a person to have all those qualities?

Honesty, commitment, loyalty, and compassion. I’ve met few people in my life who’ve got all those values.

@KeithWilson: I’m in my 40’s, it’s rare. I used to think not so rare.

@Neizvestnaya I see. Thank you for the comments.

@KeithWilson Have you had a good look at the world today. Everything is me, me me. Yes there are people who meet those criterias but they are rare. Especially being all in one package.

@Pandora Unfortunately, that was the response I was expecting….

Once I met someone for the first time and I did not think particularly highly of them. I had a class with them later that day. A young man in the class began having a seizure. The teacher sat looking at the boy with a sort of uncaring puzzlement, while she buzzed the office. This young man who was to be my friend, immediately went to the boy with the seizure and attended to him with great care. It was this cool headed action to help another that made me his dear friend.

Later, it was this same cool head for action which also led to the demise of our friendship as well. No one is perfect.

@Ltryptophan Interesting post. Thank you.

Empathy.

@CyanoticWasp stole my answer.

On the serious side – the ability to truly listen to and incorporate another person’s ideas.

Character

@Ltryptophan, if it’s not too personal,. I would like to understand how a cool-headed action by a caring person could kill a friendship.

Intelligence, integrity, realism with a side of idealism.

LOLL…love @CyanoticWasp‘s answer!

My answer: Individualism! Honesty, intelligence, integrity are a given, but the rare person is the one that an stand on their own “two feet” when everyone else is at odds with them. Great example of that is the movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington!”

Here is a part of the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1d19wV1GZQ

I can’t add to the list of qualities above, but I do know that we often do not see these values in a person at first glance. It takes a longer haul to recognize what, in a person, makes him pr her rare to us.

Empathy.I think nowdays people don’t have as much empathy towards other people as they used to . Kids are being brought up differently. Just my opinion.

Intelligence, honesty, etc. are common straits of many people. Rare people, in my mind, are individualist in personality. Some very rare people that would be considered individualist in style would be Hitler, Mussolini, etc. On a more positive note, President Obama, Martin Luther King, Teddy Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, are all individualist and rare people.

@Jeruba I laid down a line, and he crossed it believing that I would giveway. Very foolishly he held this belief.

Please don’t let my brief description from my last post make the fellow a hero. Sometimes the worst of us evince noble traits.

I am not the enumerator of faults.

I hope it is a sufficient answer.

I think honesty is a rare trait. If you think about it, how many of us are truly honest with ourselves and others? It takes really reaching deep to be that honest. I think it’s important though. [link removed by Fluther]

Thanks, @Ltryptophan. I tend to believe that all personal qualities are neutral in character and manifest in a continuum of degree from most negative to most positive. Sometimes (often) the same quality in a person will thus appear as a fault and as a virtue at various times. The circumstances of its appearance seem to govern that more than the quality itself.

Charactar or pride in yourself. Natraul kindness, fairness, and sympathy. The thoughts of the end of violence and the start of world peace. There are barely any humans with ALL those qualities. But the ones that do own those magestic qualitities are extremly rare.