Character Quotes

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A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.
Frederick Douglass

You've got to learn to survive a defeat. That's when you develop character.
Richard M. Nixon

If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished.
Richard M. Nixon

If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously.
Jerry Garcia

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.
Francis Bacon

The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit... a reputation, character.
John D. Rockefeller

There is no index of character so sure as the voice.
Benjamin Disraeli

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.
Benjamin Disraeli

I'm involved in some action scenes, so they'll train me for that. I'll be working with my acting coach to prepare for my character.
Aaliyah

If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
Alexander Pope

What I have in common with the character in 'Truman' is this incredible need to please people. I feel like I want to take care of everyone and I also feel this terrible guilt if I am unable to. And I have felt this way ever since all this success started.
Jim Carrey

It's a slight stretch of the imagination but most people are alike in most ways so I've never had any trouble identifying with the character that I'm playing.
Jack Nicholson

When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'
Alfred Hitchcock

Character is what a man is in the dark.
Dwight L. Moody

If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of me.
Dwight L. Moody

The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw of character.
Lyndon B. Johnson

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
Albert Schweitzer

Character is destiny.
Heraclitus

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained.
John Stuart Mill

All action is for the sake of some end; and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and color from the end to which they are subservient.
John Stuart Mill

Places I've lived since then had to have some kind of uniqueness and character about them. And logically Key West, and then Down Island. So, all of that stuff sort of had it's roots in New Orleans and went crazy.
Jimmy Buffett

Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them. Failure is... the highway to success.
Og Mandino

Man's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as possible the person whom he loves. It is only by imitating the vices of others that I have earned my misfortunes.
Marquis de Sade

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.
Charles Spurgeon

At first, I didn't realize it was gonna be a character. I just thought I was gonna be doing me.
Larry David

Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself.
Tennessee Williams

I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway.
Toni Morrison

All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.
Flannery O'Connor

Plots and character don't make life. Life is here and now, anytime you say the word, anytime you let her rip.
Henry Miller

Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
Elbert Hubbard

Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.
Elbert Hubbard

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.
Walter Anderson

Character is power.
Booker T. Washington

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
Booker T. Washington


Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.
Quentin Crisp

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Sudden success in golf is like the sudden acquisition of wealth. It is apt to unsettle and deteriorate the character.
P. G. Wodehouse

To find a man's true character, play golf with him.
P. G. Wodehouse

Your outlook upon life, your estimate of yourself, your estimate of your value are largely colored by your environment. Your whole career will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings, by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day.
Orison Swett Marden

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.
Orison Swett Marden

There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a King.
Orison Swett Marden

Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and improved.
Giacomo Casanova

I leave to others the decision as to the good or evil tendencies of my character, but such as it is it shines upon my countenance, and there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist.
Giacomo Casanova

He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.
Arthur Miller

Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.
Aesop

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
Leon Trotsky

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.
W. Somerset Maugham

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
W. Somerset Maugham

I regard it in fact as the great advantage of the mathematical technique that it allows us to describe, by means of algebraic equations, the general character of a pattern even where we are ignorant of the numerical values which will determine its particular manifestation.
Friedrich August von Hayek

After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface.
Edward Hopper

In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.
Edward Hopper

My character is meant to know nothing about rap, and not to like it very much, but I know about it, because my kids make me listen to it. There's some rap I do like very much. I like Eminem, Blackalicious.
Harrison Ford

My goal was just to work regularly. I didn't ever expect to be rich or famous. I wanted to be a working character actor.
Harrison Ford

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.
Will Smith

Habits change into character.
Ovid

Note too that a faithful study of the liberal arts humanizes character and permits it not to be cruel.
Ovid


People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Hermann Hesse

I care about Bond and what happens to him. You cannot be connected with a character for this long and not have an interest. All the Bond films had their good points.
Sean Connery

It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Aeschylus

Character matters; leadership descends from character.
Rush Limbaugh

I have been working up until recently with Neil Simon, who has been adapting the character to me.
Paula Abdul

The man that makes a character, makes foes.
Edward Young

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?
Henry James

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals.
David Hume

One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
Stendhal

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
Stevie Wonder

Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable.
Norman Rockwell

Character is more important than talent.
Edwin Louis Cole

If you do not know the laws of right conduct, you cannot form your character.
Swami Sivananda