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Quotes about character

276 quotes from 175 people

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Tell me your relation to pain, and I will tell you who you are!
Ernst Jünger1895–1998On Pain (1934)
We do not escape our boundaries or our innermost being. We do not change. It is true we may be transformed, but we always walk within our boundaries, within the marked-off circle.
Ernst Jünger1895–1998The Glass Bees (1957)
- Change
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
I was very lucky in my career and I loved it. But I don’t think I was accomplished enough as an actor to be remembered particularly. No, I’d like to be remembered as a decent human being, and a caring one.
Grace Kelly1929–1982Interview with Pierre Salinger, June 22, 1982
- Acting
The basis of self-government and freedom requires the development of character and self-restraint and perseverance and the long view. And these are qualities which require many years of training and education.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Address at the University of Washington
- Freedom
Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936Gunga Din (1890), Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896), Gunga Din, Stanza 5.In context
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936If— (1910)In context
- Advice
If you can dream⁠—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think⁠—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936If— (1910)In context
- Failure
- Success
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And⁠—which is more⁠—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936If— (1910)In context
- Men
- Time
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings⁠—nor lose the common touch
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936If— (1910)In context
- Virtue
What is unique about the “I” hides itself exactly in what is unimaginable about a person.
Milan Kundera1929–2023The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight, ch. 9
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
Bruce Lee1940–1973Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 46
- Knowledge
The great man is the man who can get himself made and who will get himself made out of anything he finds at hand.
Gerald Stanley Lee1862–1944Crowds (1913), Book II, Chapter XV.
- Success
There is never any real danger in allowing a pedestal for a hero. He never has time to sit on it. One sees him always over and over again kicking his pedestal out from under him, and using it to batter a world with.
Gerald Stanley Lee1862–1944Crowds (1913), Book V, Part III, Chapter XVI.
- Fame
The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.
Robert E. Lee1807–1870“Definition of a Gentleman”, a memorandum found in his papers after his death, as quoted in Lee the American (1912) by Gamaliel Bradford, p. 233
- Power