Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about character

276 quotes from 175 people

Most readBy personPage 5 of 19

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 231 (24 November 1711)
To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894An Inland Voyage (1878), Ch. III, “The Royal Sport Nautique”.
I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else.
Oliver Cromwell1599–1658Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
- Leadership
No Man is so much a Fool as not to have Wit enough sometimes to be a Knave; nor any so cunning a Knave, as not to have the Weakness sometimes to play the Fool.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax1633–1695Moral Thoughts and Reflections
- Intelligence
Not by birth does one become an outcaste, not by birth does one become a brahman. By one’s action one becomes an outcaste, by one’s action one becomes a brahman.
Gautama Buddha501–501 BCSutta Nipata (Suttas falling down), § 136
Rascals are always sociable — more’s the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others’ company.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life, Vol. 1, Ch. 5, § 9
Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah.
Richard Bachborn 1936Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
We are firm believers in the maxim that for all right judgment of any man or thing it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855), Goethe.
The true measurement of a person’s worth isn’t what they say they believe in, but what they do in defense of those beliefs. If you’re not acting on your beliefs, then they probably aren’t real.
Edward Snowdenborn 1983As quoted in Glenn Greenwald, No Place to Hide (Penguin, 2015 ed.), p. 45
Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps as few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold, which the owner knows not of.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forthrightly; no man can do more, and you are entitled to no less.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Speech, (3 November 1952) as quoted in “The Graceful Loser” in Time (23 July 1965)
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
When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter I
- Advice
A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Long Walk to Freedom (1995)
We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
Jean Cocteau1889–1963Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)