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Quotes about character

276 quotes from 175 people

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No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.
Willa Cather1873–1947Alexander’s Bridge (1912) Ch. 8
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp,
The man’s the gowd for a’ that.
Robert Burns1759–1796A Man’s a Man for A’ That, st. 1 (1795)In context
God knows, I’m no the thing I should be,
Nor am I even the thing I could be.
Robert Burns1759–1796Posthumous Pieces (1799)
To the extent that we try to be like others, we convert ourselves into zombies.
Alejandro Jodorowskyborn 1929Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy (2010)
But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), Part II, Chapter 29, tr. Thomas CommonIn context
- Justice
Men might be better if we better deemed
Of them. The worst way to improve the world
Is to condemn it.
Philip James Bailey1816–1902Festus (1839)
- Change
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
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
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain⁠—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
Dale Carnegie1888–1955How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), Part 1: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People, p. 36.
- Forgiveness
The dedication of a lifetime — these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a mighty assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Speech to the American Legion convention, New York City (27 August 1952); as quoted in “Democratic Candidate Adlai Stevenson Defines the Nature of Patriotism” in Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches In History (2004) by William Safire, p. 79—80
Very simply, diverse personalities are to be found in the breast of each of us, and often the life of more than one superior man is nothing but the coexistence of a philosopher and a snob.
Marcel Proust1871–1922Notes to his translation of Ruskin’s Sesame and Lilies (Sésame et les lys, 1906); in Marcel Proust: On Reading Ruskin, tr. Jean Autret and William Burford (Yale University Press, 1987), p. 152
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
Intolerance is evidence of impotence.
Aleister Crowley1875–1947The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 69
- Power
Character is the virtue of hard times.
Charles de Gaulle1890–1970Le Fil de l’épée (1932)
- Virtue
His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.
Aeschylus525–456 BCSeven Against Thebes (467 BC), line 592
- Virtue