Quotes About Character

I have noticed that some old men lose their sense of honour, and will cheerfully avow the strangest acts.

He was smiling openly when Stephen walked in, looking shrewish. Like many large, florid, good-natured men, Jack Aubrey was afflicted with an undue proportion of small pale, meagre friends of a shrewish turn.

men strike out their permanent characters; or have those characters struck into them

Mrs Williams was a woman, in the natural course of things; but she was a woman so emphatically, so totally a woman, that she was almost devoid of any private character.

Patrick O'Brian

if we constructed a man consisting of virtues only, would not that fellow be the most unbearable bore in the world, wearisome beyond description?

Goodness deliberately chooses to do the right thing and firmly resists what is wrong. Merely avoiding bad things doesn't make women good.

The goal when emulating the real Jesus is to become both sweet and salty, both gracious and firm.

Jesus wasn't always nice. I'm nice. I'm not like Jesus.

niceness stems from neutrality and weakness

who was a lot more than just the sum of their weaknesses.

glory and accomplishment are of far less importance than the creation of character and the individual good life.

He desired to become the man he was impersonating.

if you're trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an excuse for being lazy, the other one is probably right.

Republicans don't just have bad ideas; at this point, they are, necessarily, bad people.

Influence is having people follow you because of what you represent

In my experience, honest people don't need to put their hand on a Bible to tell the truth, and with dishonest people, it makes no difference.

There are three things I never saw her do: tell a lie, be unkind, or arrive on time.

Lines from William Blake's Jerusalem came to mind: He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars. General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer.

Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing.

It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled;

Warriors of light are not perfect.Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn.

Avoid those who seek friends in order to maintain a certain social status or to open doors they would not otherwise be able to approach.

Man needs what's worst in him in order to achieve what's best in him.