Quotes About Character

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

I shall show that the place does not honor the man, but the man the place.

I have always taken the view that one should never hold against a man anything he says after twelve o'clock at night or after a glass or two of anything.

If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.

The man who worships mere wealth is a snob.

The same man cannot be both Friend and Flatterer.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.

Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.

Friendship (as the ancients saw) can be a school of virtue, but also (as they did not see) a school of vice. It is ambivalent. It makes good men better and bad men worse.

As the touchstone tries gold, so gold tries men.

A gentleman can withstand hardships; it is only the small man who, when submitted to them, is swept off his feet.

The Three Armies can be deprived of their commanding officer, but even a common man cannot be deprived of his purpose.

The superior man, even when he is not moving, has a feeling of reverence, and while he speaks not, he has the feeling of truthfulness.

A superior man may be made to go to the well, but he cannot be made to go down into it. He may be imposed upon, but he cannot be fooled.

The Superior Man is all-embracing and not partial. The inferior man is partial and not all-embracing.

Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.

Strong men can always afford to be gentle. Only the weak are intent on giving as good as they get.

It is difficulties that show what men are.

When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.

No matter how important a man at sea may consider himself, unless he is fundamentally worthy the sea will some day find him out.

Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels.

Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than fine feathers make fine birds.

A man kept his character even when he was insane.

A man can become so accustomed to the thought of his own faults that he will begin to cherish them as charming little 'personal characteristics.'