Quotes About Character

Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven. But not those who lack the courage of their own greatness.

Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money?

They're all aristocrats, that's true," said Wyatt, "because they know that there's no such thing as a lousy job—only lousy men who don't care to do it.

Why don't you wish to take any credit for it, James? That's out of character and out of the policy at which you're such an expert. In an age when men exist, not by right, but by favor, one does not reject a grateful person, one tries to trap into gratitude as many people as possible. Don't you want to have me as one of your men under obligation?

Peter, before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences. The work, not the people. Your own action, not any possible object of your charity.

Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with

one can't be good halfway or honest approximately.

honest people were never touchy about the matter of being trusted.

Men differ in their virtues, if any," said Gail Wynand, explaining his policy, "but they are alike in their vices.

To exist is to be something, as distinguished from the nothing of non-existence, it is to be an entity of a specific nature made of specific attributes.

there's no such thing as a lousy job—only lousy men who don't care to do it.

his stomach, cantilevered over his legs, did detract from the dignity, but it added to the kindliness.

of any achievements open to you, the one that makes all others possible is the creation of your own character—that

The issue now is men's lack of integrity, their failure to act according to the ideals they espouse.

Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another.

She liked his face—its lines were tight and firm, it did not have that look of loose muscles evading the responsibility of a shape, which she had learned to expect in people's faces.

of any achievements open to you, the one that makes all others possible is the creation of your own character.

He was sixty years old; his backbone had been as straight as his gun; his spirit-as straight as his backbone.

You can fake virtue for an audience. You can't fake it in your own eyes. Your ego is your strictest judge.

every human soul has a style of its own, also. Its one basic theme. You'll see it reflected in every thought, every act, every wish of that person. The one absolute, the one imperative in that living creature. Years of studying a man won't show it to you. His face will. You'd have to write volumes to describe a person. Think of his face. You need nothing else.

I'll tell you…I'll tell you something…unhappiness is the hallmark of virtue. If a man is unhappy, really, truly unhappy, it means that he is a superior sort of person.

Racism claims that the content of a man's mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man's convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical factors beyond his control.

El amor es la expresión de los propios valores, la mayor recompensa a obtener por las cualidades morales conseguidas gracias a vuestro carácter y personalidad, el precio emocional pagado por un hombre a cambio de la alegría recibida por las virtudes de otro.

No son mis pecados lo que usan para perjudicarme, sino mis virtudes;