Character

“Our characters are the result of our conduct.”

“Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free;Inflexible in faith; invincible in arms.”

“Character is not created with a single act, no matter how brilliant or bold. It is forged in the smallest of struggles, the product of a thousand, thousand strokes. Your tool for carving your character’s template lies, in the words of the poet Robert Lowell, within your “peculiar power to choose.” Ultimately, it is the choice of the fundamental over the frivolous, preferring what is true over what’s accepted, the choosing of what is right over what is easy.”

“Our stability is but balance, and conduct liesIn masterful administration of the unforseen.”

“Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; * * * he had two distinct persons in him.”

“Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious,Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.”

“So well she acted all and every partWho are strongly acted on by what is nearest.”

“We moved from what cultural historians call a culture of character to a culture of personality. During the culture of character, what was important was the good deeds that you performed when nobody was looking. … But at the turn of the (20th) century, when we moved into this culture of personality, suddenly what was admired was to be magnetic and charismatic.”

“Self-discipline is indispensable, if you want to master your character.”

“Thou art a cat, and rat, and a coward to boot.”

“Every one is the son of his own works.”

“I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes.”

“Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.”

“The Master [Confucius] said, 'In his errors a man is true to type. Observe the errors and you will know the man.'”

“Elegant as simplicity, and warmAs ecstasy.”

“Virtue and vice had boundaries in old time,Not to be pass'd.”

“Men of light and leading.”

“A man so various, that he seem'd to beWas chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.”

“For every inch that is not fool, is rogue.”

“The clearest indication of character is what people find laughable.”

“Character in important and less important matters is that a man should steadily pursue whatever course he feels to be within his capacity.”

“Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we seeOil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree.”

“Though equal to all things, for all things unfit;Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit.”

“We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it much. People that do not laugh or cry, or take more of anything than is good for them, or use anything but dictionary-words, are admirable subjects for biographies. But we don't care most for those flat pattern flowers that press best in the herbarium.”

“Whatever comes from the brain carries the hue of the place it came from, and whatever comes from the heart carries the heat and color of its birthplace.”

“If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.”

“A very unclubable man.”

“No doubt the reason is that character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

“A tender heart; a will inflexible.”

“So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good,So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure.”

“Sensitive, swift to resent, but as swift in atoning for error.”

“In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.”

“We hardly know any instance of the strength and weakness of human nature so striking and so grotesque as the character of this haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stocking, half Mithridates and half Trissotin, bearing up against a world in arms, with an ounce of poison in one pocket and a quire of bad verses in the other.”

“And the chief-justice was rich, quiet, and infamous.”

“Our character is our will; for what we will we are.”

“Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is—more knave than fool.”

“He that has light within his own clear breastHimself his own dungeon.”

“Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fearAnd gladly banish squint suspicion.”

“Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles,Nods and Becks and wreathèd Smiles.”

“Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved.”

“Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.”

“For contemplation he and valor formed,For softness she and sweet attractive grace.”

“Adam the goodliest man of men since bornHis sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve.”

“Her virtue and the conscience of her worth,That would be wooed, and not unsought be won.”

“Character is what you are in the dark.”

“Any character, from the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to the most enlightened, may be given to any community, even to the world at large, by applying certain means; which are to a great extent at the command and under the controul, or easily made so, of those who possess the government of nations.”

“'Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn;More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'rything.”

“With too much Quickness ever to be taught;With too much Thinking to have common Thought.”

“From loveless youth to unrespected age,That pleasure miss'd her, and the scandal hit.”

“In men we various ruling passions find;The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.”

“What then remains, but well our power to use,When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.”

“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”

“When you start making a movie, you never know which will be the break out characters, the stars of the movie. That happened to us with Scrat (the saber toothed squirrel in Ice Age. We didn’t know that Scrat was going to be a superstar. Scrat doesn’t diminish the central Ice Age characters, Manny, Sid and Diego.”

“I know him a notorious liar,Look bleak i' the cold wind.”

“He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere,Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.”

“Though I am not splenitive and rash,Yet have I something in me dangerous.”

“There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee.”

“I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but aCorinthian, glad of mettle, a good boy.”

“What a frosty-spirited rogue is this!”

“This bold bad man.”

“O, he sits high in all the people's hearts:Will change to virtue and to worthiness.”

“Thou art most rich, being poor;Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon.”

“I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise, and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish.”

“What thou wouldst highly,And yet wouldst wrongly win.”

“I grant him bloody,That has a name.”

“There is a kind of character in thy life,Fully unfold.”

“Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time:Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.”

“When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.”

“You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lantern.”

“Why, now I see there's mettle in thee, and even from this instant do build on thee a better opinion than ever before.”

“He hath a daily beauty in his lifeThat makes me ugly.”

“O do not slander him, for he is kind.Right; as snow in harvest.”

“Now do I play the touch,To try if thou be current gold indeed.”

“How this graceOne might interpret.”

“The trick of singularity.”

“He wants wit that wants resolved will.”

“His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.”

“As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.”

“I'm called away by particular business. But I leave my character behind me.”

“There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken.”

“He [Macaulay] is like a book in breeches.”

“He makes no friend who never made a foe.”

“Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character.”

“The man that makes a character, makes foes.”

“The man who consecrates his hoursHe walks with nature and her paths are peace.”

“There is so much good in the worst of us,To find fault with the rest of us.”

“They love, they hate, but cannot do without him.”

“In brief, I don't stick to declare, Father Dick,From an ethical work by the Stagyrite.”

“Many men are mere warehouses full of merchandise—the head, the heart, are stuffed with goods. * * * There are apartments in their souls which were once tenanted by taste, and love, and joy, and worship, but they are all deserted now, and the rooms are filled with earthy and material things.”

“Many men build as cathedrals were built, the part nearest the ground finished; but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete.”

“I look upon you as a gem of the old rock.”

“No, when the fight begins within himself,A man's worth something.”

“Your father used to come home to my mother, and why may not I be a chippe of the same block out of which you two were cutte?”

“All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.”

“He was not merely a chip of the old Block, but the old Block itself.”

“From their folded mates they wander far, Their paths are dream-beguiled.”

“With more capacity for love than earthAnd troubled manhood follow'd baffled youth.”

“Genteel in personage,Generous and free.”

“Clever men are good, but they are not the best.”

“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.”

“It is in general more profitable to reckon up our defects than to boast of our attainments.”

“It can be said of him, When he departed he took a Man's life with him. No sounder piece of British manhood was put together in that eighteenth century of Time.”

“He was a verray perfight gentil knight.”

“The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an Earldom.”

“What was said of Cinna might well be applied to him. He [Hampden] had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute, any mischief.”

“In numbers warmly pure, and sweetly strong.”

“Not to think of men above that which is written.”

“An honest man, close-button'd to the chin,Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.”

“He cannot drink five bottles, bilk the score,And has ladies' etiquette by heart.”

“He's tough, ma'am,—tough is J. B.; tough and de-vilish sly.”

“O Mrs. Higden, Mrs. Higden, you was a woman and a mother, and a mangler in a million million.”

“I know their tricks and their manners.”

“Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.”

“Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.”

“Plain without pomp, and rich without a show.”

“There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.”

“She was and is (what can there more be said?)On earth the first, in heaven the second maid.”

“A trip-hammer, with an Æolian attachment.”

“Character is higher than intellect. * * * A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think.”

“No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.”

“A great character, founded on the living rock of principle, is, in fact, not a solitary phenomenon, to be at once perceived, limited, and described. It is a dispensation of Providence, designed to have not merely an immediate, but a continuous, progressive, and never-ending agency. It survives the man who possessed it; survives his age,—perhaps his country, his language.”

“Human improvement is from within outwards.”

“Our thoughts and our conduct are our own.”

“Every one of us, whatever our speculative opinions, knows better than he practices, and recognizes a better law than he obeys.”

“Weak and beggarly elements.”

“In every deed of mischief, he [Andronicus Comnenus] had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.”

“That man may last, but never lives,Creation's blot, creation's blank.”

“A man not perfect, but of heart Of earth's eternal heritage.”

“To be engaged in opposing wrong affords, under the conditions of our mental constitution, but a slender guarantee for being right.”

“Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”

“He were n't no saint—but at jedgment On a man that died for men.”

“Anyone must be mainly ignorant or thoughtless, who is surprised at everything he sees; or wonderfully conceited who expects everything to conform to his standard of propriety.”

“O Dowglas, O Dowglas!Tendir and trewe.”

“In death a hero, as in life a friend!”

“Wise to resolve, and patient to perform.”

“Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind.”

“But he whose inborn worth his acts commend,Of gentle soul, to human race a friend.”

“A Soul of power, a well of lofty ThoughtA chastened Hope that ever points to Heaven.”

“He was worse than provincial—he was parochial.”

“Officious, innocent, sincere,Of every friendless name the friend.”

“The heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute.”

“He is truly great that is little in himself, and that maketh no account of any height of honors.”

“E'en as he trod that day to God, And clean mirth.”

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meetWhen two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth!”

“Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy.”

“Not in the clamor of the crowded street,But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.”

“All that hath been majestical The angel heart of man.”

“Our Pilgrim stock wuz pethed with hardihood.”

“Soft-heartedness, in times like these,Shows sof'ness in the upper story.”

“Endurance is the crowning quality,And patience all the passion of great hearts.”

“For she was jes' the quiet kindSnowhid in Jenooary.”

“His Nature's a glass of champagne with the foam on 't,So his best things are done in the flash of the moment.”

“It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.”

“A nature wiseBroad as the world, for freedom and for man.”

“There thou beholdest the walls of Sparta, and every man a brick.”

“Men look to the East for the dawning things, for the light of a rising sunBut they look to the West, to the crimson West, for the things that are done, are done.”

“In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,That there's no living with thee, or without thee.”

“And, but herself, admits no parallel.”

“Hereafter he will make me know, Too good to be unkind.”

“Who knows nothing base,Fears nothing known.”

“Sae true his heart, sae smooth his speech, As he comes up the stair.”

“In men whom men condemn as illBetween the two, where God has not.”

“Good at a fight, but better at a play;Godlike in giving, but the devil to pay.”

“To those who know thee not, no words can paint;And those who know thee, know all words are faint!”

“To set the Cause above renown, That binds the brave of all the earth.”

“Every man has at times in his mind the ideal of what he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient; yet in all men that really seek to improve, it is better than the actual character. * * * Man never falls so low that he can see nothing higher than himself.”

“Grand, gloomy and peculiar, he sat upon the throne, a sceptred hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his awful originality.”

“Good-humor only teaches charms to last,Still makes new conquests and maintains the past.”

“Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild;In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child.”

“Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust,Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.”

“No man's defects sought they to know;So never rais'd themselves a friend.”

“So much his courage and his mercy strive,He wounds to cure, and conquers to forgive.”

“He that swearethNo man knoweth him.”

“Devout yet cheerful, active yet resigned.”

“Was never eie did see that face,Were with his sweete perfections caught.”

“It is of the utmost importance that a nation should have a correct standard by which to weigh the character of its rulers.”

“It is energy—the central element of which is will—that produces the miracles of enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is the main-spring of what is called force of character, and the sustaining power of all great action.”

“Lax in their gaiters, laxer in their gait.”

“There is no man suddenly either excellently good or extremely evil.”

“Worth, courage, honor, these indeedYour sustenance and birthright are.”

“Yet though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behaviour; and to love her is a liberal education.”

“It's the bad that's in the best of usMakes up, and mocks, humanity!”

“High characters (cries one), and he would seeThings that ne'er were, nor are, nor e'er will be.”

“The true greatness of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual.”

“His own character is the arbiter of every one's fortune.”

“A man should endeavor to be as pliant as a reed, yet as hard as cedar-wood.”

“Fame is what you have taken, Then you begin to live.”

“The hearts that dare are quick to feel;The hands that wound are soft to heal.”

“Such souls,Wakens the slumbering ages.”

“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.”

“And one man is as good as another—and a great dale betther, as the Irish philosopher said.”

“None but himself can be his parallel.”

“Whoe'er amidst the sonsOf Nature's own creating.”

“Just men, by whom impartial laws were given,And saints, who taught and led the way to heaven!”

“Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyedA fairer spirit, or more welcome shade.”

“Quantum instar in ipso est.”

“Lord of the golden tongue and smiting eyes;Wrought deadlier ill than ages can undo.”

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,For every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you.”

“Formed on the good old plan,What others talked of while their hands were still.”

“One that would peep and botanizeUpon his mother's grave.”

“But who, if he be called upon to faceIs happy as a lover.”

“Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,Nor thought of tender happiness betray.”

“The reason firm, the temperate will,Endurance, foresight, strength and skill.”

“I think there should be no occasion on which it is absolutely, as a point or rule of law, impossible for a man to redeem his character.”

“To rake into the whole course of a man's life is very hard.”

“An accused man should have the benefit of the presumption of integrity which arises from the virtue of a lifetime.”

“We would not suffer any raking into men's course of life, to pick up evidence that they cannot be prepared to answer.”

“You have no right, for the purpose of justifying a libel, to inquire into a man's life and opinions.”

“There is in many, if not in all men, a constant inward struggle between the principles of good and evil; and because a man has grossly fallen, and at the time of his fall added the guilt of hypocrisy to another sort of immorality, it is not necessary, therefore, to believe that his whole life has been false, or that all the good which he ever professed was insincere or unreal.”

“In my opinion the best character is generally that which is the least talked about.”

“Means of knowledge is the foundation of the general inference of character.”

“In a doubtful case, a good character will have some weight with the Court, but in a clear conviction, it can be of no avail.”

“There never has been a great and beautiful character, which has not become so by filling well the ordinary and smaller offices appointed of God.”

“Men and brethren, a simple trust in God is the most essential ingredient in moral sublimity of character.”

“Our character is but the stamp on our souls of the free choiceof good or evil we have made through life.”

“The materials of the first temple were made ready in solitude. Those of the last also must be shaped in retirement; in the silence of the heart; in the quietness of home; in the practice of unostentatious duty.”

“A man is what he is, not what men say he is. His character no man can touch. His character is what he is before his God and his Judge; and only himself can damage that. His reputation is what men say he is. That can be damaged; but reputation is for time, character is for eternity.”

“When the captain throws out his sheet-anchor, and the ship "rides at anchor," as it is called, there is a great strain on every link of that chain; and if one bad link breaks, off goes the anchor, and the ship is driven before the winds, and may be destroyed. Now, our character is very much like the chain; one bad piece vitiates and spoils it. So we must have a pure character.”

“I have learned by experience that no man's character can be eventually injured but by his own acts.”

“Man can have strength of character only as he is capable of controlling his faculties; of choosing a rational end; and, in its pursuit, of holding fast to his integrity against al! the might of external nature.”

“Whatever capacities there may be for enjoyment or for suffering in this strange being of ours, and God only knows what they are, they will be drawn out wholly in accordance with character.”

“Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us.”

“Character is the product of daily, hourly actions, and words, and thoughts; daily forgivenesses, unselfishness, kindnesses, sympathies, charities, sacrifices for the good of others, struggles against temptation, submissiveness under trial. Oh, it is these, like the blending colors in a picture, or the blending notes of music, which constitute the man.”

“A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, 'and not on marble.”

“Modern engineers, after having erected a viaduct, insist upon subjecting it to a severe strain by a formal trial trip, before allowing it to be opened for public traffic; and it would almost seem that God, in employing moral agents for the carrying out of His purposes, secures that they shall be tested by some dreadful ordeal, before He fully commits to them the work which He wishes them to perform.”