Character Quotes

Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.

If you haven't cried, your eyes can't be beautiful.

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

Character is fate. (Destiny).

We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.

The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us.

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.

At the end of your lives you will not be judged by academic successes, the degrees or diplomas earned, the positions held, the material wealth acquired, or power and prestige, but rather on the basis of what you have become as persons and what you are in conduct and character.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

Maybe some folks are alcoholics and others are just voluntary drunks. Maybe some folks drink due to body chemistry and others due to their lazy characters. Maybe some have drinking problems, while others have problems enough to drink.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

The behavior of an individual is determined not by his racial affiliation, but by the character of his ancestry and his cultural environment.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgement will always be in demand under all conditions.

Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don't have.

God uses change to change us. He doesn’t use it to destroy us or to distract us, but to coax us to the next level of character, experience, compassion and destiny!

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

All people have three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

We're nothing if we're not loved. When you meet somebody who is more important to you than yourself, that has to be the most important thing in life, really. And I think we are all striving for it in different ways. I also believe very, very strongly that everybody is the hero/heroine of his/her own life. I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters

Be mild with the mild, shrewd with the crafty, confiding to the honest, rough to the ruffian, and a thunderbolt to the liar. But in all this, never be unmindful of your own dignity.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

Your religion is what you do when the sermon is over.

It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.

I need you to do more than survive. As writers, as revolutionaries, tell the truth, your truth in your own way. Do not buy into their system of censorship, imagining that if you drop this character or hide that emotion, you can slide through their blockades. Do not eat your heart out in the hope of pleasing them.

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins.

Character is long-standing habit.

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth and have it found out by accident.

Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character.

Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to plant their whole life in the hands of some other person. I would describe this method of searching for happiness as immature. Development of character consists solely in moving toward self-sufficiency.

People say that you're going the wrong way when it's simply a way of your own.

A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.

the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this; nor is it in the nature of human intellect to become wise in any other manner.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.

The only way to truly know a person is to argue with them. For when they argue in full swing, then they reveal their true character.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.

Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want. Freedom is the strength of character to do what is good, true, noble, and right.

The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is "ambiguity": the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces-both individual and social.

Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.

It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.

Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

But some characters in books are really real—Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage.

Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.

Be yourself. The world worships the original.

And I always had this idea for making a movie about a femme fatale, because I like these characters. They're a lot of fun, they're sexy, they're manipulative, they're dangerous.

Beauty is a radiance that originates from within and comes from inner security and strong character.

There is no such thing as a "self-made" man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.

We are all potentially characters in a novel—with the difference that characters in a novel really get to live their lives to the full.

You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself.

Acts of bravery don't always take place on battlefields. They can take place in your heart, when you have the courage to honor your character, your intellect, your inclinations, and yes, your soul by listening to its clean, clear voice of direction instead of following the muddied messages of a timid world.

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.

There is a story, always ahead of you. Barely existing. Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it. You discover the carapace that will contain and test your character. You will find in this way the path of your life.

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.

A character is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from. And by those he has walked away from that cause him remorse.

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.

A man is known by the books he reads.

Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist.

A man's magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power. I was not a murderer. I was not like Victor Sells. I was Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I was a wizard. Wizards control their power. They don't let it control them. And wizards don't use magic to kill people. They use it to discover, to protect, to mend, to help. Not to destroy.

We have to keep company with supposedly bad characters if we are to survive and not succumb to mental atrophy. People of good character, so called, are the ones who end up boring us to death.

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable.

Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.

In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.

I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.

I like the sensibility of Australian film a lot and the crews are fantastic. Great characters, wonderful people and no line between - I think in Hollywood they have this line between actors and crew a lot, and that just didn't exist, which I really appreciated.

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

A university's essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism - a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.

Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth.

The power of thought is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of character, the power of heart is love. Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

We all lose our looks eventually. Better develop your character and interest in life.

Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them.

You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.

I write. I imagine. The act of imagining in itself enlivens me. I am not frozen and paralyzed before the predator. I invent characters. At times I feel as if I am digging up people from the ice in which reality enshrouded them, but maybe, more than anything else, it is myself that I am now digging up.

I always want to know what's wrong with you, why you ain't smiling. That's just my character; I just love people and want to see people having a good time.

Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support and opens the way to wealth, honor and happiness.

I love it when ugliness is beautiful. I love character flaws.

It's not a pretty face, I grant you. But underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.

Character is built little by little, over days, weeks, months, and years, with thousands of small and seemingly insignificant acts of discipline.

The difficulty with marriage is that we fall in love with a personality, but must live with a character.

Never, never listen to anybody that try to discourage you.

Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.

Nothing is more difficult and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to ones time (and those one loves) and to say loudly: No!

It is easier to influence strong than weak characters in life.

Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

A man's character never changes radically from youth to old age. What happens is that circumstances bring out characteristics which have not been obvious to the superficial observer.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

I'm drawn to characters who bear similarities to the protagonists in myths and legends. (...)

Inside many liberals is a totalitarian screaming to get out. They don't like to have another point of view in the room that they don't squash and the way they try to squash it is by character assassination and name calling.

True faith takes its character and quality from its object. Its strength therefore depends on the character of Christ. Even those of us who have weak faith have the same strong Christ as others!

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

Men are all alike - except the one you've met who's different.

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Once the curtain is raised, the actor is ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third.

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.

All of us have schnozzles... if not in our faces, then in our character, minds or habits. When we admit our schnozzles, instead of defending them, we begin to laugh, and the world laughs with us.

Man is not made better by being degraded; he is seldom restrained from crime by harsh measures, except the principle of fear predominates in his character, and then he is never made radically better for its influence.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Unless education promotes character making, unless it helps men to be more moral, more just to their fellows, more law abiding, more discriminatingly patriotic and public spirited, it is not worth the trouble taken to furnish it.

Chris Claremont once said of Alan Moore, "if he could plot, we'd all have to get together and kill him." Which utterly misses the most compelling part of Alan's writing, the way he develops and expresses ideas and character. Plot does not define story. Plot is the framework within which ideas are explored and personalities and relationships are unfolded.

The moment in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of life really takes place.

I am in no mood to be deceived any longer by the crafty devil and false character whose greatest pleasure is to take advantage of everyone.

If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers.

The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionaries are philosophers and saints.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Character is power.

You are not just here to fill space or be a background character in someone else's movie. Consider this: nothing would be the same if you did not exist. Every place you have ever been and everyone you have ever spoken to would be different without you. We are all connected, and we are all affected by the decisions and even the existence of those around us.

Education is not confined to books, and the finest characters often graduate from no college, but make experience their master, and life their book. [Some care] only for the mental culture, and [are] in danger of over-studying, under the delusion . . . that learning must be had at all costs, forgetting that health and real wisdom are better.

Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them. Failure is... the highway to success.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates the weak ones.

Don't be afraid of showing affection. Be warm and tender, thoughtful and affectionate. Men are more helped by sympathy than by service. Love is more than money, and a kind word will give more pleasure than a present.

Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

I love to come in and play with a wig or glasses or clothes. I love using props. I'm from the Peter Sellers school of trying to prepare for the character.

The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

I'm not an actress who can create a character. I play me.

With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.

I like the idea of a writer being haunted by his own creation, especially if the writer resents the way the character defines him.

I'm sorry, Mother. It's just that five days of flying with these characters has made me crawl right to the edge of sanity.' 'I fell over the edge.' Karen said. 'I jumped,' Walter added, 'And I can't seem to climb back up.

I keep thinking of the gifts of my own upbringing, which I once took for granted: I can read any book I choose and comprehend it. I can write a complete sentence and punctuate it correctly. If I need help, I can call on judges, attorneys, educators, ministers. I wonder what I would be like if I had grown up without such protections and supports. What cracks would have turned up in my character?

He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.

The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit... a reputation, character.

I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.

Don't try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough.

Anybody can quit. Only a real champion and a person of character and strength can keep going and refuse to give up.

If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.

There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks.

Strength of character may be learned at work, but beauty of character is learned at home.

Some people are molded by their admirations, others by their hostilities.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

A signature always reveals a man's character - and sometimes even his name.

There is more story in a minor character like Boba Fett than there is in all the clutter of various vampires in the Twilight franchise.

To be a character who feels a deep emotion, one must go into the memory's vault and mix in a sad memory from one's own life.

Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. I can work out a good character much faster than anyone can lie me out of it

I've reached a point in life where it's no longer necessary to try to impress. If they like me the way I am, that's good. If they don't, that's too bad.

You can do what you want to do. You can be what you want to be.

I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are.

The theater, bringing impersonal masks to life, is only for those who are virile enough to create new life: either as a conflict of passions subtler than those we already know, or as a complete new character.

Mediocre people have an answer for everything and are astonished at nothing. They always want to have the air of knowing better than you what you are going to tell them; when, in their turn, they begin to speak, they repeat to you with the greatest confidence, as if dealing with their own property, the things that they have heard you say yourself at some other place. A capable and superior look is the natural accompaniment of this type of character.

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.

None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.

Batman is easily my most favorite character beside Spawn.

You know when you watch old movies, it's always the small parts you remember, the character actors who come in like a breath of fresh air.

There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'.

He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.

By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.

The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor.

It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune. . . .

In drama, the characters should determine the story. In melodrama, the story determines the characters.

I am definitely not scared of Mike Tyson. I am at the top of the food chain and he is looking to knock me off. Mike's an arrogant imbecile. He sounds like a cartoon character.

Politics ruins the character.

For me it's always about first impressions. I trust my instincts. I love to prepare if it's something that requires training. But I don't like to prepare the psychology too much. I enjoy the psychology of the character but I work better from a first impression.

You can be true to the character all you want but you've got to go home with yourself.

I have discovered that we may be in some degree whatever character we choose. Besides, practice forms a man to anything.

It is the genus that gives the characters, and not the characters that make the genus.

Music is a language by whose means messages are elaborated, that such messages can be understood by the many but sent out only by few, and that it alone among all the languages unites the contradictory character of being at once intelligible and untranslatable - these facts make the creator of music a being like the gods.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Habits change into character.

Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.

You have to be eligible for luck to strike, and I think that's a matter of education and preparation, and character and all the other solid attributes that sometimes people laugh at.

Be upright in thy whole life; be content in all its changes;so shalt thou make thy profit out of all occurrences; so shall everything that happeneth unto thee be the source of praise

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

My character is self-important, poorly informed, well-intentioned but an idiot, ... So we said, `Let's give him a promotion.

Lutheranism restricted itself to an exclusively ecclesiastical and theological character, while Calvinism put its impress in and outside the church upon every aspect of human life.

Reality is as thin as paper and betrays with all its cracks its imitative character.

I would like to carve my novel in a piece of wood. My characters"ﾂ祢 would like to have them heavier, more three-dimensional ... My characters have a profession, have characteristics; you know their age, their family situation, and everything. But I try to make each one of those characters heavy, like a statue, and to be the brother of everybody in the world.

It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.

When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

The great difficulty is first to win a reputation; the next to keep it while you live; and the next to preserve it after you die, when affection and interest are over, and nothing but sterling excellence can preserve your name. Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.

To murder character is as truly a crime as to murder the body: the tongue of the slanderer is brother to the dagger of the assassin

How would I behave in a situation that caused me to summon the essence of my character? The tragedy inspired me to test myself. I wanted to reveal to myself who I was: the kind of person who died, or the kind of person who overcame circumstances to help himself and others

Casting ethnic characters is a very hard thing to do, but it's important. It's also interesting.

Always do the things you fear the most. Courage is an acquired taste, like caviar.

Fashion should not be expected to serve in the stead of courage or character.

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?

It is a beautiful trait in the lover's character, that they think no evil of the object loved.

We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live.

You can't have virtue without sin. What I'm after is having my characters' virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That's how you test people.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

Eragon started as me but ended up evolving into his very own character, .. Even as he has gone through his coming- of- age story, the process of writing and publishing these novels has been my own coming- of- age story. There are parallels between my own experience and Eragon's, but fortunately, I don't have people charging at me with swords.

Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable.

If we divine a discrepancy between a man's words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

By the end, you should be inside your character, actually operating from within somebody else, and knowing him pretty well, as that person knows himself or herself. You're sort of a predator, an invader of people.

Shakespeare without Othello, Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet would be all too much like Hamlet without the prince.

What vice could be worse than covetousness? What is more sinful than slander? For one who is truthful, what need is there for austerity? For one who has a clean heart, what is the need for pilgrimage?.

A person's character is but half formed till after wedlock.

You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do.

People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.

Considering how much we are all given to discuss the characters of others, and discuss them often not in the strictest spirit of charity, it is singular how little we are inclined to think that others can speak ill-naturedly of us, and how angry and hurt we are when proof reaches us that they have done so.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes anothers.

I'm not comfortable being around too many people. I don't like being out in public too much. I don't like going to bars. I don't like doing celebrity stuff. So most of the characters I play are people who don't always feel comfortable beyond their small circle of friends.

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

Conscience is that still, small voice that is sometimes too loud for comfort.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

The letter we all love to receive is one that carries so much of the writer's personality that she seems to be sitting beside us, looking at us directly and talking just as she really would, could she have come on a magic carpet, instead of sending her proxy in ink-made characters on mere paper.

I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.

Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.

The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence: They acquainted themselves with God, and acquiesced His will in all things.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

I do not like assassins, or men of low character.

The end result of kindness is that it draws people to you.

Even among the married, sexual satisfaction must not be sought in a way which disregards man's character as a person and degrades him to the animal level.

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

Our actions, habits, character, and future are most definitely affected by our thoughts.

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

My brother said that at Eton, students were told caning builds character. I suppose girls are caned less because we aren't thought to have much character." "Which is the sort of thing males say when they don't know any women.

To some it may seem old-fashioned to speak of virtue and chastity, honesty, morality, faith, character, but these are the qualities which have built great men and women and point the way by which one may find happiness in the living of today and eternal joy in the world to come. These are the qualities which are the anchors to our lives, in spite of the trials, the tragedies, the pestilences, and the cruelties of war which bring in their wake appalling destruction, hunger, and bloodshed

There is no road to success but through a clear strong purpose. Nothing can take its place. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of every part.

Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.

Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits and get on with trying to win.

Of course I know that the twins are only words on a page, and I'm certainly not the sort of writer who talks to his characters or harbours any illusions about the creative process. But at the same time, I think it's juvenile and arrogant when literary writers compulsively remind their readers that the characters aren't real. People know that already. The challenge is to make an intelligent reader suspend disbelief, to seduce them into the reality of a narrative.

I like it when you read a script and there's the part that you show to the other characters and then there's the part that only the audience knows.

A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.

Every year, I have to spend another hour working out. Pretty soon I'll be spending eight hours working out just to fit in the costume. I have the feeling that the minute I stop doing the character, boom, Roseanne Barr.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable

I never thought I could write this much and now that it's coming to an end, I feel sad that I have to stop, sort of the way you feel at the end of a really good book and you know you're going to miss the main character. But in this case, the main character is me! Myself. Joe (formerly JoDan) Bunch. "ﾂ寧oe Bunch

Good humor isn't a trait of character, it is an art which requires practice.

The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.

Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality.

If I retire doing the character, I don't think the character has to retire. There will still be caricatures of Elvira. You know, Dracula still works, and he's dead.

If the egotist is weak, his egotism is worthless. If the egotist is strong, acute, full of distinctive character, his egotism is precious, and remains a possession of the race.

I like the idea of bringing cartoon characters to life... and although the Americans have already attempted this, their culture is not sufficiently humane to make it work.

The delicate thing about the university is that it has a mixed character, that it is suspended between its position in the eternal world, with all its corruption and evils and cruelties, and the splendid world of our imagination.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

To feel our character, our personality, and our personal, hard-won history fade from being is to be exposed to whatever lies beneath these comforting, operational conveniences. What remains when the conscious and functioning self has been erased is mankind's fundamental condition – irrational, violent, guilt-wracked, despairing, and mad.

It would be nice to say the rich people, the fancy people, all behaved like bastards and the poor slobs all came through like heroes. But as a matter of fact, sometimes the poor slobs behave like slobs and the great, noble, privileged characters come off very well, indeed.

It was an amazing win and testament to the character of the team. From the position we were in it must be one of the greatest comebacks.

Shy and proud men are more liable than any others to fall into the hands of parasites and creatures of low character. For in the intimacies which are formed by shy men, they do not choose, but are chosen.

Paint the essential character of things.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

A still-born son os superior to a foolish son endowed with a long life. The first causes grief for but a moment while the latter like a blazing fire consumes his parents in grief for life.

Insist upon yourself. Be original.

As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?

In men whom men condemn as ill I find so much of goodness still, In men whom men pronounce divine I find so much of sin and blot, I do not dare to draw a line Between the two, where God has not.

Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.

Having no diplomatic representation in Washington, China has no sources which allow her to check the character of applicants and therefore makes the practice of refusing everybody from the United States.

Every man has three characters: that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.

No woman has the right to marry a man if she has to bend herself out of shape for him. She might wish to, but she could never be to him with all her passionate endeavor what the other woman could be to him without trying. Character will dominate over all and will come out at last.

After doing this, going away, trying other things and working on other shows, this character, and working within Days of Our Lives, has been one of the most enjoyable experiences in my career.

He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.

Let there be no inscription upon my tomb. Let no man write my epitaph. No man can write my epitaph. I am here ready to die. I am not allowed to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare calumniate me. Let my character and motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice.

To say that Agatha Christie's characters are cardboard cut-outs is an insult to cardboard cut-outs.

Golf puts a man's character on the anvil and his richest qualities - patience, poise, restraint - to the flame.

I've been in a lot of trouble and come out of it. I think it shows a lot of good character.

I'd love to do a character with a wife, a nice little house, a couple of kids, a dog, maybe a bit of singing, and no guns and no killing, but nobody offers me those kind of parts.

The best part of the fiction in many novels is the notice that the characters are imaginary.

(Propaganda) proceeds by psychological manipulations, character modifications, by creation of stereotypes useful when the time comes - The two great routes that this sub-propaganda takes are the conditioned reflex and the myth

Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

A scientist is an unlikely character to put at the center of a movie.

Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire.

Baseball reveals character; golf exposes it.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

The man that makes a character, makes foes.

Not to oversimplify it, somebody once said a good rule of thumb in interpreting a character is to find the good in the bad people that you portray and the bad in the good.

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?

Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character.

The great hope of society is in individual character.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

Who would have thought that a means of communication limited to 140 characters would ever create misunderstandin g.

Well, the years from 10 to 20, when your body, mind and everything is like changing every five minutes, can be pretty torturing. And most of the interesting characters, I think, are somewhat tortured or torturous. I'm 20 now, so I'm only just an adult.

Basically the children who watch it just see the little characters they love, and so they're not discerning about whether it looks great or it's a great story or anything.

A man has to know his limitations.

Good taste is better than bad taste, but bad taste is better than no taste.

The Duke of Buckingham gave me once a short but severe character of the two brothers. It was the more severe, because it was true: the King (he said) could see things if he would, and the Duke would see things if he could.

The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.

The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.

After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser.

I think if I weren't so beautiful, maybe, I'd have more character

It is a rare American who does not have some story about how music has made our lives richer and more interesting, how it has changed our moods, brought out the best in our character and even sometimes helped us earn a living.

Little choices determine habit;Habit carves and molds characterWhich makes the big decisions.

He's an honest man - you could shoot craps with him over the telephone.

I'm just a pack mule. I've played leads and I've played character roles. Any actress in Hollywood will tell you as your age climbs, the leads thin.

The American mood, perhaps even the American character, has changed. There are few manifestations any longer of the old American self-assurance which so irritated Dickens. Instead, there is a sense of frustration so perceptible that even our politicians have attempted to exploit it.

Sometimes I wish I were a character in a book and there was a writer out there giving me things to say.

The highest qualities of character...must be earned....

No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.

Sometimes you have to go places with characters and emotions within yourself you don't want to do, but you have a duty to the story and as a storyteller to do it.

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and Responsibility of our existence.

The point of my explanation is I'm very subjective when it comes to describing my characters: they are all a little bit a part of me from the outside in or the inside out - but to put your mind at ease, I built Paul Snider from the outside in.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not ent

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.

Does my character hate Bree? Well, let's just put it this way. Bree hasn't seen the last of me. I gave that drunk gal a ride home a few episodes ago and she turned on me!

Seven Deadly Sins Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Science without humanity Knowledge without character Politics without principle Commerce without morality Worship without sacrifice.

Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance.

Character is made by what you stand for;reputation by what you fall for.

Everyone in this life is defeated but a man, if he be a man, is not defeated.

Christianity is not so much the advent of a better doctrine as of a perfect character.

The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.

I don't need all that much - I just need to know who my characters are and what kind of jam they're going to get into, and I'll write myself out of their jam.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

To play one of the main characters in it, it's not the kind of thing you don't do. Oh, I'd rather not play Pippin in Lord of the Rings..., In fact, I'm trying to think - what else would you rather do, you know? I can't actually think of another job that I'd rather do.

I learn by going where I have to go.

I often feel, and ever more deeply I realize, that fate and character are the same conception.

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.

We are talking about someone who has lived. It must be honored in every respect. The fictional can take any kind of channel - according to the actor's marriage to the character.

Most of the methods of training the conscious side of the writer-the craftsman and the critic in him- are actually hostile to the good of the artist's side; and the converse of this proposition is likewise true. But it is possible to train both sides of the character to work in harmony, and the first step in that education is to consider that you must teach yourself not as though you were one person, but two.

They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak.

Character is, for the most part, simply habit become fixed.

We not only interpret the character of events... we may also interpret our interpretations.

For every social wrong there must be a remedy. But the remedy can be nothing less than the abolition of the wrong.

There are characters in [punk] that do deliberately go as far as they can in certain kind of taboo areas.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.

Education has for its object the formation of character.

History is the record of encounters between character and circumstance.

A person of definite character and purpose who comprehends our way of thought is sure to exert power over us. He cannot altogether be resisted; because, if he understands us, he can make us understand him, through the word, the look, or other symbol.

Always do what's right. That will gratify some and surprise the rest.

The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.

Charity and personal force are the only investments worth anything.

All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.

Beware of the person who can't be bothered by details.

Distance tests a horse's strength. Time reveals a person's character.

A team that has character doesn't need stimulation.

I don't think my spirituality has affected my character. I feel like my character is much more cynical about his beliefs, and I think I have to kind of drop what I believe in order to play him.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.

Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself.

You can never judge your characters. You have to love them, really care about them. You're never just playing a villain or the crazy lady.

Never say anything to hurt anyone. Moreover . . . refrain from double talk, from shrewd and canny remarks that are designed to advance our interests at someone's disadvantage. We are to turn our back upon evil, and in every way possible, do good, help people and bring blessings into their lives.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.

Man cannot be uplifted; he must be seduced into virtue.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

I played a lot of character parts in school.

When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'

Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.

It is only an error in judgment to make a mistake, but it shows infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered

Inside of all the makeup and the character and makeup, it's you, and I think that's what the audience is really interested in... you, how you're going to cope with the situation, the obstacles, the troubles that the writer put in front of you.

There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character

Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and cruelties; it accepts certain sufferings as matters of course, puts up patiently with certain evils. Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.

The most beautiful things in the universe are the starry heavens above us and the feeling of duty within us.

She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

When a blind man carries a lame man both go forward.

You've got to learn to survive a defeat. That's when you develop character.

Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

I say that habit's but a long practice, friend, and this becomes men's nature in the end.

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.

A mind conscious of innocence laughs at the lies of rumor.

Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs though, it's intimate and psychological, a mystery resist to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.

Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

Great intellects are skeptical.

There are many kinds of smiles, each having a distinct character. Some announce goodness and sweetness, others betray sarcasm, bitterness and pride; some soften the countenance by their languishing tenderness, others brighten by their spiritual vivacity.

Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.

I'm really a timid person - I was beaten up by Quakers

I am more spontaneous than my character.

The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.

The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.

Our acts make or mar us, we are the children of our own deeds.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Temperament lies behind mood; behind will, lies the fate of character. Then behind both, the influence of family the tyranny of culture; and finally the power of climate and environment; and we are free, only to the extent we rise above these.

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

I always start from scratch with a character - they're never based on anyone else. You get ideas of what people look like, and I'm a great people watcher. You can draw inspiration from people.