quotations about character
Instead, therefore, of saying that Man is the creature of Circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that Man is the architect of Circumstance. It is Character which builds an existence out of Circumstance. Our strength is measured by our plastic power. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels, one warehouses, another villas.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Life and Works of Goethe
Give me the character and I will forecast the event.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
For almost every character I’ve played in the 43 years I’ve been working as a professional actor, I’ve found parts of myself. We are all bipolar in the tiniest essence of what it is. We are all multiple personalities, in a sense, and to be healthy mentally, I think, learning what those multiple personalities are and inviting them in your life is really important.
SALLY FIELD
Ability Magazine, Feb. 2009
The world will find out that part of your character which concerns it: that which especially concerns yourself, it will leave for you to discover.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character.
QUENTIN TARANTINO
Pulp Fiction
You cannot build up a character in a solitude; you need a formed character to stand a solitude.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Winston Churchill's Great Quotation Book: From Alamein to Zest for Life
Character is this moral order seen through the medium of an individual nature. An individual is an encloser. Time and space, liberty and necessity, truth and thought, are left at large no longer. Now, the universe is a close or pound. All things exist in the man tinged with the manners of his soul. With what quality is in him he infuses all nature that he can reach; nor does he tend to lose himself in vastness, but, at how long a curve soever, all his regards return into his own good at last. He animates all he can, and he sees only what he animates. He encloses the world, as the patriot does his country, as a material basis for his character, and a theatre for action. A healthy soul stands united with the Just and the True, as the magnet arranges itself with the pole; so that he stands to all beholders like a transparent object betwixt them and the sun, and whoso journeys towards the sun, journeys towards that person. He is thus the medium of the highest influence to all who are not on the same level. Thus, men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
God created man in his own image, hence manhood is an ideal, and in as far as man fails to exhibit the Godlike in his character does he fall short of true manhood.
HENRY F. KLETZING
Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light
Character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse--either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other.
SAMUEL SMILES
Character
We generally turn the sunny side of our character towards the public; the shady side towards home.
CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM
The Maxims of Marmaduke
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
JAMES ALLEN
As a Man Thinketh
A man who has lost his character may weigh as much and know as much, may be as wise and as zealous, may have as much property and as prominent a station as before, but his influence for good is gone forever. Men cast him out as worthless. Character is everything to a man. That gone, and there is no place for him in the universe.
HENRY F. KLETZING
Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light
A man can never do anything at variance with his own nature. He carries within him the germ of his most exceptional action; and if we wise people make eminent fools of ourselves on any particular occasion, we must endure the legitimate conclusion that we carry a few grains of folly to our ounce of wisdom.
GEORGE ELIOT
Adam Bede
Those who assume a character which does not belong to them, only make themselves ridiculous.
AESOP
"The Crow and Raven", Aesop's Fables
The crown and glory of life is Character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general goodwill; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the honour without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells; for it is the result of proved honour, rectitude, and consistency -- qualities which, perhaps more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind.
SAMUEL SMILES
Self-Help
The least of the virtues adds to the perfection of the character. It is with the finest characters as it is with the finest woods and marbles--the polishing hand is still needed to bring out the veins of beauty and of grace.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Every man professes a thorough knowledge of his own character and disposition; yet it is impossible for anyone to know himself perfectly: pride conceals much of our nature, and conceit intercepts the rules of inquiry.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Man, having an ideal before him of that which he ought to be, and is not, and acting as though he possessed the character he ought to have, but has not, comes, by the very virtue of his aspiration, to possess the character he imagines.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
The Blazing Star
Riches I may owe to Fortune; beauty, to my parents; but character I can owe only to myself.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts