Quotes About Character

Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits, that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles---for then he is off his guard.

What a man is: that is to say, personality, in the widest sense of the word; under which are included health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence, and education.

Mitleid mit den Thieren hängt mit der Güte des Charakters so genau zusammen, daß man zuversichtlich behaupten darf, wer gegen Thiere grausam ist, könne kein guter Mensch seyn.

The true basis and propaedeutic for all knowledge of human nature is the persuasion that a man's actions are, essentially and as a whole, not directed by his reason and its designs; so that no one becomes this or that because he wants to, though he want to never so much, but that his conduct proceeds from his inborn and inalterable character, is narrowly and in particulars determined by motivation, and is thus necessarily the product of these two factors.

A human being does at all times only what he wills, and yet does it necessarily. But that rests on the fact that he is what he wills : for out of what he is everything that he does at any time follows necessarily.

Fundamental disposition towards others, assuming the character either of Envy or of Sympathy, is the point at which the moral virtues and vices of mankind first diverge.

The paltry character of most men compels the few who have any merit or genius to behave as though they did not know their own value, and consequently did not know other people's want of value; for it is only on this condition that the mob acquiesces in tolerating merit. A virtue has been made out of this necessity, and it is called modesty.

The task of the novelist is not to narrate great events but to make small ones interesting.

whoever attributes no merit to himself because he really has none is not modest, but merely honest.

The character of the human being is empirical. Only through experience can one become acquainted with it, not merely with that of others, but also with one's own.

as experience in fact shows that those purely rational characters commonly called practical philosophers (and rightly so, since real, i.e., theoretical, philosophers translate life into concepts, while they translate concepts into life) are surely the happiest

Great intellectual gifts mean an activity pre-eminently nervous in its character, and consequently a very high degree of susceptibility to pain in every form.

A man shows who he is by the way that he dies.

We must first learn from experience what we desire and what we can do. Till then we know it not, we are without character, and must often be driven back to our own way by hard blows from without. But if we have finally learnt it, then we have attained to what in the world is called character, the acquired character. This is accordingly nothing but the most perfect knowledge possible of our own individuality.

Die Ehre ist nicht die Meinung von besonderen, diesem Subjekt allein zukommenden Eigenschaften, sondern nur von den der Regel nach vorauszusetzenden, als welche auch ihm nicht abgehen sollen. Sie besagt daher nur, daß dies Subjekt keine Ausnahme mache, während der Ruhm besagt, daß es eine mache. Ruhm muß daher erst erworben werden, die Ehre hingegen braucht bloß nicht verloren zu gehen.

Si se pudiese castrar a todos los canallas y encerrar en conventos a todas las muchachas tontas, dotar de un harén a todos los hombres de carácter noble, y de verdaderos hombres a todas las muchachas inteligentes y sensatas, pronto nacería una generación que eclipsaría la época de Pericles.

La conmiseración con los animales está íntimamente unida a la bondad de carácter de tal suerte, que se puede afirmar de seguro que quien es cruel con los animales no puede ser buena persona

La compasión por los animales está íntimamente asociada con la bondad del carácter y puede ser afirmado que el que es cruel con los animales no puede ser un buen hombre.

A Buddhist sees the essence of civilisation not in a multiplication of wants but in the purification of human character. Character, at the same time, is formed primarily by a man's work.

All we ask is to be allowed to remain the writers of our own story. That story is ever changing. Over the course of our lives, we may encounter unimaginable difficulties. Our concerns and desires may shift. But whatever happens, we want to retain the freedom to shape our lives in ways consistent with our character and loyalties.

The value of autonomy Ã¢â'¬Â¦ lies in the scheme of responsibility it creates: autonomy makes each of us responsible for shaping his own life according to some coherent and distinctive sense of character, conviction, and interest. It allows us to lead our own lives rather than be led along them, so that each of us can be, to the extent such a scheme of rights can make this possible, what he has made himself.

Ingenuity is often misunderstood. It is not a matter of superior intelligence but of character. It demands more than anything a willingness to recognize failure, to not paper over the cracks, and to change. It arises from deliberate, even obsessive, reflection on failure and a constant searching for new solutions.