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Quotes about character

276 quotes from 175 people

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I think that if I am smart in business, it’s just that I’m smart about who I am. I know what I can, can’t, will and won’t do, and if I have to be strict about that, I will.
Dolly Parton1946–2026Interview by Jancee Dunn, “Dolly Parton: At 57, the Country Legend Still Brims With Vitality”, Rolling Stone (30 October 2003)
- Business
I have to be honest here, I’m not really interested in selling records to people who are homophobic. I don’t need the approval of people who don’t approve of me.
George Michael1963–2016Interview with Oprah Winfrey (2004), reported in Luke Henriques Gomes, “George Michael: from tortured star to pop icon”, The New Daily (December 26, 2016).
Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?
Kanye Westborn 1977Thank You and You’re Welcome (2009), p.19
Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives … and you can either help somebody, you can be compassionate toward people, you can treat some people with dignity — or not.
George Lucasborn 1944Interview with Bill Moyers for The Mythology of Star Wars (1999)
- Decisions
Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don’t have.
Anthony Bourdain1956–2018Kitchen Confidential (2000)
Choosing the freedom to be uninteresting never quite worked for me.
Diane Keaton1946–2025Then Again (2011; 2012), Ch. 6: The Uphill Climb Versus the Downhill Slide
The gentleman knows that whatever is imperfect and unrefined does not deserve praise.
Xunzi313–231 BCXunzi, ch. 1, “An Exhortation to Learning”; as translated in P. J. Ivanhoe and B. W. Van Norden (eds.), Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2001), p. 260
The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891)
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), ConclusionIn context
Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.
Raymond Chandler1888–1959“The Simple Art of Murder”, The Atlantic Monthly (December 1944)
- Courage
In matters of national security emotion is no substitute for intelligence, nor rigidity for prudence. To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man — and also a nation.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Radio address (11 April 1955); as quoted in The World’s Great Speeches (1999) edited by Lewis Copeland, Lawrence W. Lamm, and Stephen J. McKenna
- Wisdom
Inefficiency is a curse; and no good intention atones for weakness of will and flabbiness of moral, mental, and physical fiber.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
‘Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892Lady Clara Vere de Vere (1832), Stanza 7
- Virtue
Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator, No. 225 (17 November 1711)
- Wisdom
One of the most evil of people is the two-faced person who shows one face to these people and another face to those people.
MMuhammad571–632Muwatta of Imam Malik, Speech, hadith 21
- Good & Evil