Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Being clever is not the same as being good, and Emerson says that when the two come apart, character matters more. Intellect can analyze, argue and impress, but it does not decide how we treat people or whether we keep our word when it costs us. A great soul, in his view, shows its strength less in the ideas it holds than in the life it actually lives.

This fits Emerson's wider outlook as a Transcendentalist. He believed in moral self-culture, in trusting one's deepest convictions, and in thought that turns into action. In his well-known address on the American scholar, he insists that a thinker who never acts is incomplete. The quote is commonly credited to him, though I can't point to its exact source with confidence.

A modern example: you may have sharp opinions about honesty and fairness, but the test comes in an ordinary meeting when a mistake of yours is about to be blamed on someone else. Speaking up, though it is uncomfortable, is what the quote asks for. It is a small act, and it is where character gets built.