Character Quotes

In dreams we see ourselves naked and acting our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake.
Henry David Thoreau
Solitude, in the sense of being often alone, is essential to any depth of meditation or of character and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur, is the cradle of thought and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society could ill do without.
John Stuart Mill
To be a book - Collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
Robertson Davies, "The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks".
Samuel smiles - it is possible that the scrupulously honest man...
The peril of every fine faculty is the delight of playing with it for pride. Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief. Talent is mistaken for genius, a dogma or system for truth, ambition for greatest, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.
Philip Dormer Chesterfield
It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy - From lack of character.
Dag Hammarskjld
Elihu burritt - forming characters! whose? our own or others?...
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
The character of a man is known from his conversations.
Menande
Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest; better to lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune.
Samuel Smiles
Talents are best nurtured in solitude; but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
Watch your thoughts they become words. Watch your words they become actions. Watch your actions they become habits. Watch your habits they become character. Watch your character it becomes your destiny.
Patrick Overton
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
James Albert Michene
Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level of themselves.
Benjamin Franklin
The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people.
Claiborne Pell
You have all the characteristics of a popular politician a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
Aristophanes
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Hermann Hesse
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time.
Benito Mussolini, The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, 1935
Character develops itself in the stream of life.
Johann von Goethe
Thoughts lead on to purposes purposes go forth in action actions form habits habits decide character and character fixes our destiny.
Tryon Edwards
A person without character is just as body without soul.
Ranjan
Acceptance without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western religion, rejection without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western science.
Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters".
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Kelle
If you could choose one characteristic that would get you through life, choose a sense of humor.
Jennifer Jones
Certainly it is a world of scarcity. But the scarcity is not confined to iron ore and available land. The most constricting scarcities are those of character and personality.
William R Allen
A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Through his mastery of storytelling techniques, he has managed to separate his character, in the public mind, from his actions as president. ... He has, in short, mesmerized us with that steady gaze.
Jean Nathan Mille
Being another character is more interesting than being yourself.
Sir John Gielgud
It is the highest form of self - Respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.
Dr. Dale E. Turne
Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.
William Carleton
Forming characters Whose Our own or others Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.
Elihu Burritt
There is no leveler like Christianity, but it levels by lifting all who receive it to the lofty table - Land of a true character and of undying hope both for this world and the next.
Johathan Edwards
When writing a novel a writer should create living people people not characters. A character is a caricature.
Ernest Hemingway
Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Knowledge is essential to conquest; only according to our ignorance are we helpless. Thought creates character. Character can dominate conditions. Will creates circumstances and environment.
Anne Besant
Character builds slowly but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.
Faith Baldwin