Quotes About Character

The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much.

The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous.

What makes a man a good artist, a good sculptor, a good musician? Practice. . . . What makes a man a good man? Practice. Nothing else. There is nothing capricious about religion. We do not get the soul in different ways, under different laws, from those in which we get the body and the mind.

I look upon the vulgar observation, 'That the devil often deserts his friends, and leaves them in the lurch,' to be a great abuse on that gentleman's character. Perhaps he may sometimes desert those who are only his cup acquaintance; or who, at most, are but half his; but he generally stands by those who are thoroughly his servants, and helps them off in all extremities, till their bargain expires.

he commonly gave them a hint that he knew much more than he thought proper to disclose. This last circumstance alone may, indeed, very well account for his character of wisdom; since men are strangely inclined to worship what they do not understand. A grand secret, upon which several imposers on mankind have totally relied for the success of their frauds.

Conscience - the only incorruptible thing about us

La política que propugne dependerá de la postura particular que se adopte en cada momento. Porque cada cual es unas veces el Dr. Jekyll y otras Mr. Hyde.

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?

Live as you like best, and your character will take care of itself. Most things are good for you; the exceptions are very rare.

The finer natures were those that shone at the larger times.

Wherever you go, madam, it will matter little what you carry. You will always carry your goodness.

Changing the form of one's mission's almost as difficult as changing the shape of one's nose: there they are, each, in the middle of one's face and one's character--one has to begin too far back.

What is character but the determination of incident?

The Countess was very good company and not really the featherhead she seemed; all one had to do with her was to observe the simple condition of not believing a word she said.

there was something superior even in his injustice, and absolute in his mistakes.

Take things more easily. Don't ask yourself so much whether this or that is good for you. Don't question your conscience so much—it will get out of tune, like a strummed piano. Keep it for great occasions. Don't try so much to form your character—it's like trying to pull open a rosebud. Live as you like best, and your character will form itself.

Our friend was slightly nervous; that went with his character as a student of fine prose, went with the artist's general disposition to vibrate

But if he isn't a gentleman — What is he? He's a horror.

When I'm bad I am bad !

I know at least what I am,' he simply went on; 'the other side of the medal's clear enough. I've not been edifying--I believe I'm thought in a hundred quarters to have been barely decent. I've followed strange paths and worshipped strange gods; it must have come to you again and again--in fact you've admitted to me as much--that I was leading, at any time these thirty years, a selfish frivolous scandalous life. And you see what it has made of me.

But James, as an artist, was deeply suspicious of what gave him pleasure, or indeed satisfaction. In his own complex sensibility, there was an ambiguity about most things, and this moved him towards subtlety when he approached character, drama, and scene, and nudged him towards many modifying subclauses when he wrote a sentence. Nothing came to him simply.

She has a sort of old-fashioned character that's passing away — a vivid identity.

It would have been impossible to carry a bad name with a greater sweetness of innocence.