Quotes About Character

Probably because for all the amazing things books can do, they can't make you into a bad person.

In a very real and sobering way, we must actually become the gospel to the people around us—an expression of the real Jesus through the quality of our lives.

there are few situations which reveal a man's character and personality so strongly as the occupancy of a witness-box.

The commitment of marriage can frequently arouse some rather peculiar behaviour in men and women alike, but the bizarre notion that one can change the character of one's mate seems to occur more often to women than to men.

As Cyprian puts it near the start of his treatise, "We know virtues by their practice rather than through boasting of them."71 If patience is not good in the lived experience of humans, it isn't worth talking about.72

THERE ARE FOUR TYPES of temperaments. One who is easily angered and easily appeased—his virtue cancels his flaw. One whom it is difficult to anger and difficult to appease—his flaw cancels his virtue. One whom it is difficult to anger and is easily appeased, is pious. One who is easily angered and is difficult to appease, is wicked. —PIRKEI AVOT 5:11

SOMEONE WHO WANTS to be greater than others should not dig a pit for his friend; rather he should build a hill for himself. —RABBI YISRAEL SALANTER (1810–1883)

Rabbi Elyakim Krumbein puts it, "To fulfill the Torah means to grow as a person, and to grow truly as a person is tantamount to the fulfillment of Torah.

God doesn't want new methods; He wants new men.

Can you imagine getting hit with all that bad news at one time? What's even more amazing is Job's response. He responded by mourning his losses, worshipping and praising God, and not blaming God for his calamities! No wonder God trusted him so much!

Always ask yourself, "Would I be proud of this if it appeared all over the Internet tomorrow?

A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form, he is not constantly at work upon the facade of his appearance.

The concept of a person is that of a character abstracted from a history.

The medieval world then is one in which not only is the scheme of the virtues enlarged beyond an Aristotelian perspective, but above all in which the connection between the distinctively narrative element in human life and the character of the vices comes to the forefront of consciousness and not only in biblical terms.

Virtues are dispositions not only to act in particular ways, but also to feel in particular ways. To act virtuously is not, as Kant was later to think, to act against inclination; it is to act from inclination formed by the cultivation of the virtues.

There is no practical rationality then without the virtues of character. The vicious argue unsoundly from false premises about the good, while the akratic ignores the sound arguments available to him. Only the virtuous are able to argue soundly to those conclusions which are their actions […]

Then they'd be wrong. It's only our deeds that make us evil, Tanner; they're what define us, nothing else, not our intentions or feelings. But what are a few bad deeds compared to a life, especially the kinds of lives we can live now?

In rugby I think it is good to have a bit of a persona, a bit of a character because we are one of the last things that isn't necessarily controlled.

An actor's off-screen persona should never overshadow his on-screen characters.

There is your persona and then there's the real you. I was living inside my persona too much.

I got a different persona than a lot of these other guys.

If you go on stage, or on TV, then there is an impetus that comes about to be a persona. A completely different character. But when you're someone like me, you don't want to have a persona. I want to be exactly who I am on stage.

Character is better than ancestry, and personal conduct is of more importance than the highest.

I don't need much of a character in my life. I've already got one; my family knows who I am, and I don't have a reason to make an impression on the world around me unless it's in a professional context. Acting is not a personal experience; it's a job.