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Quotes about character

276 quotes from 175 people

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Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.
George Santayana1863–1952Introduction to The Ethics of Spinoza (1910)
People who think they’re generous to a fault usually think that’s their only fault.
SHSydney J. Harris1917–1986On the Contrary (1964), Ch. 7
You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.
Henrik Ibsen1828–1906An Enemy of the People (1882), Act V
- Courage
The only way out of today’s misery is for people to become worthy of each other’s trust.
Albert Schweitzer1875–1965Reverence for Life (1969)
People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
Anatole France1844–1924The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Pt. II, ch. 4
- Comedy
The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.
William Hazlitt1778–1830Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld’s Maxims (1823), No. 402
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with — a man is what he makes of himself.
Alexander Graham Bell1847–1922Bell Telephone Talk (1901)
The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1955
Superior people are only those who let it be discovered by others; the need to make it evident forfeits the very virtue they aspire to.
SHSydney J. Harris1917–1986Pieces of Eight (1982)
- Pride
The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been well organized.
Mary Wollstonecraft1759–1797Letters Written in Sweden (1796), Letter 19
Each of us is full of too many wheels, screws and valves to permit us to judge one another on a first impression or by two or three external signs.
Anton Chekhov1860–1904Ivanov, Act III, sc. vi (1887)
Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.
Agatha Christie1890–1976The ABC Murders (1936)
They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow (Schlaukopf) of the first rank. But the truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to do with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half.
Otto von Bismarck1815–1898To Gyula Andrássy (18 September 1877), as quoted in R. W. Seton-Watson, Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Eastern Question (1935), p. 224
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), Ch. 5In context
- Truth & Lies
A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator, No. 122 (20 July 1711)
- Morality