Quotes About Character

In theory Vera liked strong women; in practice they often irritated her.

Something occurred to me then. It was all about the unfairness of the pageant. Mary Anne was absolutely right. Myriah really should have won, if this pageant was honestly based on people's talents and character, but it wasn't. I was glad that because Myriah had been given such a terrific prize, she wasn't disappointed about not winning the grand prize. But I was sorry that she had to settle (even happily) for second best.

Tell me the four people with whom you spend the most time and I will tell you who you are.

The fact that the universe is illuminated where you stand—that your thoughts and moods and sensations have a qualitative character in this moment—is a mystery, exceeded only by the mystery that there should be something rather than nothing in the first place.

It is simply astonishing how people destroy their marriages, careers, and reputations by saying one thing and doing another.

came away convinced that lying, even about the smallest matters, needlessly

Funny or not, the story reveals something distasteful about Sita: She will lie when it suits her needs.

Lieutenant General William G. Boykin

I used to think I had integrity but I came to realize it was just sloth.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

I do not care to speak ill of a man behind his back, but I believe he is an attorney.

Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.

Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species.

Indeed Johnson was very sensible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time; he said, 'My master whipt me very well. Without that, Sir, I should have done nothing.' He told Mr. Langton, that while Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, 'And this I do to save you from the gallows.

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.

The world cannot reward those qualities which are concealed from it

Sir John gave us such an account of Sir Hargrave, as helped me not only in the character I have given of him, but let me know that he is a very dangerous and enterprising man. He says, that laughing and light as he is in company, he is malicious, ill-natured, and designing; and sticks at nothing to carry a point on which he has once set his heart. He has ruined, Sir John says, three young creatures already under vows of marriage.

I have often heard my grandfather observe, that men of truly great and brave spirits are most tender and merciful; and that, on the contrary, men of base and low minds are cruel, tyrannical, insolent, where-ever they have power.

Rakish men make not either good husbands, or good fathers; nor yet good brothers. — But, no wonder! The narrow-hearted creatures centre all their delight in themselves.

Odd characters, my dear, are needful to make even characters shine. You good girls would not be valued as you are, if there were not bad ones.

A promise is an obligation. A just man will keep his promise, a generous man will go beyond it. — This is my rule.