Quotes About Character

Malcolm stared back calmly, though he felt anything but calm: if that monkey had a name, it might be Malice, he thought.

The narrating voice that tells 'Middlemarch' is just as much a made-up character as Dorothea or Mr. Casaubon.

The trouble with kind people is they're not sexy.

You are an enemy of the Church, Lee Scoresby. By their fruits shall ye know them.

Because Lyra now realized, if she hadn't done so before, that all the fear in her nature was drawn to Mrs. Coulter as a compass needle drawn to the Pole.

there is an angel called Metatron.

I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that's an evil one, because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.

1. Podemos controlar lo que hacemos, pero no lo que somos. 2. Por otra parte, y simultáneamente, o que hacemos depende de lo que somos (de lo que hemos de hacer con ello), y lo que somos puede verse modificado por lo que hacemos. 3. Lo que hacemos es moralmente significante. Lo que somos, no.

Or when a good character does something bad? It's probably better to think about good or bad actions rather than good or bad characters. People are complicated.

Algunas historias son así. Cuando se les ha dado cuerda, nada las detiene; avanzan hasta alcanzar el final previsto. Aunque los personajes deseen con todas sus fuerzas modificar su destino, son incapaces de hacerlo.

The two old men couldn't help smiling, but whereas Farder Coram's smile was a hesitant, rich, complicated expression that trembled across his face like sunlight chasing shadows on a windy March day, John Faa's smile was slow, warm, plain, and kindly.

American society [...] not only sanctions gross and unfair relations among men, but it encourages them. Now, can that be denied? No. Rivalry, competition, envy, jealousy, all that is malignant in human character is nourished by the system. Possession, money, property--on such corrupt standards as these do you people measure happiness and success.

other people's weakness can destroy you just as much as their strength can. Weak people are not harmless. Their weakness can be their strength.

Would that I were still a ludicrous character in his lousy book!

I'll be curious to see how we all come out someday. It could be an interesting story. You're not so nice and polite in your fiction, he said. You're a different person.

Così sosteneva Jerry, e così era andata. La teoria di Jerry è che lo Svedese è buono, cioè passivo, cioè uno che cerca sempre di fare le cose giuste: un carattere socialmente controllato che non esplode mai, non cede mai all'ira. Non avendo la rabbia al passivo, non l'ha neppure all'attivo. Secondo questa teoria , è la mancanza di rabbia che finisce per uccidere.

It is Jerry's theory that the Swede is nice, that is to say passive, that is to say trying always to do the right thing, a socially controlled character who doesn't burst out, doesn't yield to rage ever. Will not have the angry quality as his liability, so doesn't get it as an asset either. According to this theory, it's the no-rage that kills him in the end. Whereas aggression is cleansing or curing.

the depressed person was frightened for herself, for as it were "[her]self "—i.e. for her own so-called "character" or "spirit" or as it were "soul

To them, right and wrong is words, boy. He came away and eased himself into his big desk chair, sitting straight, hands out before him on the unscarred presidential cherrywood. Right and wrong ain't words, he said. They're feelings. In your guts and intestines and such. Not words. Not songs with guitars. They're what make you feel like you do. They're inside you. Your heart and digestion. Like the folks you personally love.

I worry that I am driven by a] basically vapid urge to be avant-garde and post structural and linguistically calisthenic. This is why I get very spiny when I think someone's suggesting this may be my root motive and character because I'm afraid it might be.

Who we are is the result of how we live and act on a daily basis. Our daily actions reflect our prime values and motivations.

There is evil in all of us, and it is the mark of a man how he defies the evil within.

Let us so live in this trying time that when it is all over we can look one another in the eye with the knowledge that we have behaved honourably and fairly.

Vanda (as Dunayev): In our society, a woman's only power is through men. Her character is her lack of character. She's a blank, to be filled in my creatures who at heart despise her. I want to see what Woman will be when she ceases to be man's slave. When she has the same rights as he, when she's his equal in education and his partner in work. When she becomes herself. An individual.