Quotes About Character

Nausea's very subject is the randomness, the contingency, the superfluity, of the world; where better to begin than with Roquentin's own randomness, his contingency as an invented character?

The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it's just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into existence. Enlightenment isn't in the character, it's in the underlying truth.

I smiled at her, my most comforting, challenging, I'm-not-really-a-shark smile.

My sister is an excellent shot with a pistol, and no doubt has many other sterling character traits, but putting her in front of a computer is like asking a donkey to do the polka, and she very wisely left all her Googling to me.

Harry had molded him into a man who only killed the killers;

That was almost certainly true—but then, Joe Acosta was a rich and powerful man, and my sister was a tough and stubborn woman, and a meeting of two such people would probably go a lot smoother if at least one person present had just a tiny smidgen of tact. Deborah had never had any; she probably couldn't even spell it. And judging from his reputation, Joe Acosta was the kind of man who would buy tact if he ever needed any. So that left me. I

If I had been irritated by him before, now I was positively seething. He had gone beyond mere mockery; now he was "asking around" about me, prying into my character, encouraging everyone around me to unload about all of Dexter's quirks and peccadilloes. It made me so angry that I could calm myself only by picturing Robert duct-taped to a table, with me standing happily above him clutching a fillet knife. Still, I ate his doughnuts.

Of all the odd thoughts I could have, that might seem the oddest, but there it was. Dexter was in a dither over doing what he does best, merely because it would be a rush job. Was my new life of luxury rotting away the hard and happy core of the monster that is me? Turning me into an old maid incapable of the simplest and most well-justified endings? Was I really so straitlaced?

What Robert was trying to do so intently was, in fact, no more than craft. He did no more than copy my tics and twitches—even to the point of staring at my family portrait, a very personal part of my disguise, for his character research—

Standing beside her was a man I can only describe as a generic fed, with a gray suit and white shirt and shiny black shoes. They were both facing my sister, Sergeant Deborah, and another man I didn't know. He was blond, about six feet tall, muscular, and absurdly good-looking in a rugged, masculine way, as if God had taken Brad Pitt and decided to make him really handsome.

Troy earned all of our respect," says Garry Cobb, the Dallas linebacker. "He got killed and refused to cry. I've been on the field when quarterbacks cry, and it ain't pretty. Dan Marino was a crier—'Whose man was that! Where's the blocking! Whah! ' But Aikman—never. Aikman was a man.

He was likened favorably to Rudolph Giuliani; unlike the former mayor, however, Grady had no political aspirations.

Pride has never been a virtue. There are some occasions on which it is wise to remain silent.

He recalled Old Jack's words after he'd scored a century at Lord's: anyone can be a good winner. The sign of a great man is how you handle defeat.

He that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.

When you travel like I did, vague about destination and with an open-ended itinerary, a holy-seeming openness takes over your character. It's the reason the first philosophers were peripatetic.

The question is whether such a technique can really make a man good. Greatness comes from within, 6655321. Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man.

Having OCD has made me a more intense, sensitive, and compassionate human being. I have been humbled by my disorder. It has built character even while tearing at my soul, my heart, and my self-esteem. It has enabled me to fight harder, to strive for the good and the truth inside me. It has made me less critical and judgmental of others who suffer in their lives.

In terms of being smart, Libby is very, very pretty.

Values aren't buses, she said shortly. They're not supposed to get you anywhere. They're supposed to define who you are. And I'd rather be touchy-feely than morally bankrupt.

Integrity is your own gauge of what is right for you. Integrity is not a stand-alone concept

God is just in the way he cares for each of his children. We can rest in his just, righteous, and merciful character.

I want to live in a world where people are judged by who they are instead of what size they wear.

The measure of a man is, does he know how to love.