Quotes About Character

Positive self-esteem must be preceded by self-respect. To get self-respect you have to do something good.

A principle that can't bear being laughed at, frowned on, and cold-shouldered, isn't worthy of the name.

Clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.

In writing the history of a life I believe absolutely that the reader cannot understand the character and deeds of the subject unless he is given a basic understanding of that person's sexual loves and hates and conflicts. It is the only way the reader can make sense out of innumerable apparently senseless actions.

Women without children are also the best of mothers,often, with the patience,interest, and saving grace that the constant relationship with children cannot always sustain. I come to crave our talk and our daughters gain precious aunts. Women who are not mothering their own children have the clarity and focus to see deeply into the character of children webbed by family. A child is fortuante who feels witnessed as a peron,outside relationships with parents by another adult.

I've been treating you with courtesy and respect because that's the way I choose to treat everyone. But never, ever mistake kindness with weakness.

How much more courage it took to be kind than to be cruel.

Funny how imperfections on the outside mean something splendid beneath.

You can tell a lot about a man by his friends, or lack of them. Do they bring out the best in each other, or are they always gossiping, tearing others down? Keeping wounds alive?

It's too easy to feed the anger. Too cowardly to stoke the hate. You must look inside yourself and decide who you are and who you want to be. Character is not created in times like these. It's revealed. This is a trying time. A testing time. Be careful." Chapter 14 · Page 122 · Location 2188

She felt if she could just get a good look at a person's bookcase and their grocery cart, she'd pretty much know who they were.

Anyone could be clever. Anyone could be smart. Anyone could be taught. But not everyone was kind." Chapter 1 · Page 10 · Location 202

Armand Gamache had seen the worst. But he'd also seen the best. Often in the same person.

Rumors are hard to prove, but they're even harder to disprove. We both know that character assassination is easy. All it takes is a suggestion. A well-placed word in someone's ear.

Character is not created in times like these. It's revealed.

Life is choice. All day, every day. Who we talk to, where we sit, what we say, how we say it. And our lives become defined by our choices. It's as simple and as complex as that. And as powerful. So when I'm observing, that's what I'm watching for. The choices people make.

But never, ever mistake kindness for weakness.

I've been treating you with courtesy and respect because that's the way I choose to treat everyone. But never, ever mistake kindness for weakness.

but if you were a nasty piece of work growing up, you'll be an asshole as an adult and you'll die pissed off.

The very force of his personality both created and crippled. How much more could he have accomplished had he been kinder? But then, dynamism and kindness often don't go together…

But privately Reine-Marie wondered. Wondered whether what people did in a crisis was, in fact, their real selves. Stripped of artifice and social training. It was easy enough to be decent when all was going your way. It was another matter to be decent when all hell was breaking loose.

You can tell a lot about a man by his friends, or lack of them.

Jean Guy Beauvoir was loosely wrapped but tightly wound.

The Chancellor studied the man in front of her. She'd known him for decades. Seen his rise through the ranks. Seen his great fall. And seen him put himself together again and go back to doing a job that was far more than a job for him. It was written on his face.