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Character Quotes

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Character Quotes

“Literature is the voice of the age and the state; the character, energy, and resources of the country are reflected and imaged forth in the conceptions of its great minds; they are organs of the time; they speak not their own language, they scarce think their own thoughts; but under an impulse like the prophetic enthusiasm of old, they must feel and utter the sentiments which society inspires.”

ThinkingFeelsMindCountryStatesCharacterAgeLiteratureEnergySpeakLanguageVoiceInspireResourcesEnthusiasmImpulseSentimentsConceptionOrgansScarcePropheticGreat Minds
Book:Selections from the Works of Edward Everett: With a Sketch of His Life
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“Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.”

MenMadeCharacterGovernmentWould BeHonestDangerDependsIllusionPhilosopherContraryWelfareGovernorsPinsOccasionalFranklin
Book:The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson
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“But the novels of women were not affected only by the necessarily narrow range of the writer's experience. They showed, at least in the nineteenth century, another characteristic which may be traced to the writer's sex. In Middlemarch and in Jane Eyre we are conscious not merely of the writer's character, as we are conscious of the character of Charles Dickens, but we are conscious of a woman's presence of someone resenting the treatment of her sex and pleading for its rights.”

MayCharacterSexNovelRightsCenturyConsciousRangeCharacteristicsTreatmentAffectedJaneNineteenth CenturyDickensPleadingMiddlemarch
Book:Selected essays
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“A jealous man only sees his own spectrum when he looks upon other men, and gives his character in theirs.”

MenGivingLooksCharacterJealousyLook UpJealousSpectrumJealous Man
Book:A Collection of the Works of William Penn: To which is Prefixed a Journal of His Life, with Many Original Letters and Papers Not Before Published
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“Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die. But, once realise what the true object is in life — that it is not pleasure, not knowledge, not even fame itself, 'that last infirmity of noble minds' — but that it is the development of character, the rising to a higher, nobler, purer standard, the building-up of the perfect Man — and then, so long as we feel that this is going on, and will (we trust) go on for evermore, death has for us no terror; it is not a shadow, but a light; not an end, but a beginning!”

MenFeelsShouldMindLongEndsCharacterLightLastsDeathDiesPerfectPleasureObjectsBuildingGoes OnDevelopmentHigherSceneFameStandardsShadowTerrorDareNobleRisingRealisingInfirmityBuilding UpPerfect ManEvermore
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (Illustrated)
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“In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow-men, he is constantly acting a studied part. The bold and peculiar traits of native character are refined away or softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed good-breeding, and he practises so many petty deceptions and affects so many generous sentiments for the purposes of popularity that it is difficult to distinguish his real from his artificial character.”

MenRealCharacterPurposeDifficultActingExistenceOpinionInfluenceDependsFellowsDeceptionGenerousNativeCivilizedSentimentsPeculiarArtificialTraitsPopularityPettyFellow ManRefinedBreedingPractiseGood Breeding
Book:The Complete Short Stories of Washington Irving: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveler, The Alhambra, Woolfert’s Roost & The Crayon Papers Collections (Illustrated): The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, Old Christmas, The Voyage, Roscoe, The Widow’s Retinue, An Old Soldier, Mountjoy, Don Juan, Woolfert’s Roost, Tales of The Alhambra and many more
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“There's nothing like being in fashion. A man that has once got his character up for a wit is always sure of a laugh, say what he may. He may utter as much nonsense as he pleases, and all will pass current. No one stops to question the coin of a rich man; but a poor devil cannot pass off either a joke or a guinea without its being examined on both sides. Wit and coin are always doubted with a threadbare coat.”

MenMayCharacterSidesPoorLaughingRichFashionPleaseJokesDevilCurrentsWitNonsenseCoatsBoth SidesCoinsRich ManDoubtedGuinea
Book:The Complete Tales of Washington Irving
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“If a painting of a tree was only the exact representation of the original, so that it looked just like the tree, there would be no reason for making it; we might as well look at the tree itself. But the painting, if it is of the right sort, gives something that neither a photograph nor a view of the tree conveys. It emphasizes something of character, quality, individuality. We are not lost in looking at thorns and defects; we catch a vision of the grandeur and beauty of a king of the forest.”

IfsGivingWellsLooksReasonCharacterMightWould BeLostViewsQualityVisionTreePaintingKingsOriginalsPhotographIndividualityForestsNo ReasonRepresentationDefectsGrandeurThorns
Author:Calvin Coolidge
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“What we take to be our strongest tower of delight, only stands at the caprice of the minutest event the falling of a leaf, the hearing of a voice, or the receipt of one little bit of paper scratched over with a few small characters by a sharpened feather.”

LittlesCharacterFallBitsVoiceEventsPaperLittle BitDelightHearingStrongestTowersLeafsFeathersCapriceReceipts
Book:Pierre, Or The Ambiguities: Volume Seven, Scholarly Edition
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“All of us, single or married, are eternally part of some family-someway, somewhere, somehow-and much of our joy in life comes as we correctly recognize and properly develop those family relationships. We come to this earth charged with a mission: to learn to love and serve one another. To best help us accomplish this, God has placed us in families, for he knows that is where we can best learn to overcome selfishness and pride and to sacrifice for others and to make happiness and helpfulness and humility and love the very essence of our character.”

KnowsCharacterHelpingEarthJoySacrificeHumilityPrideMarriedEssenceAnd LoveOvercomingAccomplishMissionsSelfishnessSacrifice For OthersHelpfulnessFamily RelationshipSelfishness And Pride
Author:John H. Groberg
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“For almost every character I've played in the 43 years I've been working as a professional actor, I've found parts of myself. We are all bipolar in the tiniest essence of what it is. We are all multiple personalities, in a sense, and to be healthy mentally, I think, learning what those multiple personalities are and inviting them in your life is really important.”

ThinkingYearsImportantCharacterLife IsActorsFoundActingPersonalityHealthyEssenceMultipleInvitingBipolarMultiple Personalities
Author:Sally Field
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“He [Bogie] had tremendous character and a great sense of honor and would not tolerate lies, even if they asked him what he thought of a movie. We were once at a screening at somebody's house, I forget whose, and they ran a movie that he was in, that he never thought much of. Afterward, the producer asked what he thought of it, and Bogie said "I think it's a crock." And this producer was horrified! He was about to release the movie, and he said to Bogie "Why would you say that?!" Bogie shrugged and said "Then don't ask me." He never played the schmoozing game. He was not into that at all.”

IfsThinkingSaidCharacterLyingAsksGamesHouseForgetHonorProducersReleaseAsk MeRanTolerateScreeningSchmoozing
Author:Lauren Bacall
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“In every human being one or the other of these two instincts is predominant: the active or positive instinct to offer hospitality, the negative or passive instinct to accept it. And either of these instincts is so significant of character that one might as well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts and guests.”

HumansWellsTwoCharacterMightHuman BeingsAcceptingClassMankindOffersNegativeInstinctActiveSignificantHostGuestsPassiveHospitality
Book:And Even Now
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“What our view of the effectiveness of religion in history does at once make evident as to its nature is--first, its necessary distinction; second, its necessary supremacy. These characters though external have been so essential to its fruitfulness, as to justify the statement that without them religion is not religion. A merged religion and a negligible or subordinate religion are no religion.”

FirstsDoeHas BeensCharacterViewsEssentialsStatementsDistinctionJustifyEvidentEffectivenessSubordinatesSupremacyFruitfulness
Book:The meaning of God in human experience: philosophic study of religion
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“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

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Author:Khalil Gibran
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“There's no doubt that I really have a feeling for the theater. These past few days it has occurred to me to do a comedy whose chief characters are photographic enlargements. Those people we see in doorways. Newlyweds, sergeants, dead girls, an anonymous crowd full of mustaches and wrinkles. It should be terrible. If I focus it well, it will possess pathos without consolation. In the midst of those people I will place an authentic fairy.”

PeopleIfsShouldWellsCharacterFeelingsPastGirlDoubtComedyFocusTerribleTheaterCrowdsChiefsNo DoubtFairyMidstConsolationWrinklesDoorwaysMustachePathosSergeantsNewlywedsEnlargement
Author:Federico Garcia Lorca
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“Absolutely. I think, I think the American people, at their core, are a decent people. I think that we still have prejudice in our midst, but I think that the vast majority of Americans are willing, are willing to judge people on the basis of their ideas and their character. And in the case of the presidency, I think what's most important is whether the American people think that you understand their hopes and dreams and struggles and whether they think you can actually help them achieve those hopes and dreams.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsStillsImportantIdeasCharacterHelpingDreamCasesStruggleAchieveWillingJudgingBasesPrejudiceMajorityCoreDecentMidstPresidencyHopes And Dreams
Author:Barack Obama
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“The character structure of modern man, who reproduces a six-thousand-year-old patriarchal authoritarian culture is typified by characterological armoring against his inner nature and against the social misery which surrounds him. This characterolgical armoring of the character is the basis of isolation, indigence, craving for authority, fear of responsibility, mystic longing, sexual misery, and neurotically impotent rebelliousness.”

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Author:Wilhelm Reich
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“Hearing him speak is so fun, reassuring I dare say. You can say all you like about Sihanouk: that he's an atrocious liar, a madman, a fraud, a swashbuckler, an international blot. You may think that, but you cannot deny how in this age in which the political arena seems to generate only dull, obtuse and boring characters with no imagination, he's a kind of miracle.”

ThinkingKindMayCharacterSeemsAgePoliticalSpeakFunImaginationMiracleInternationalDareBoringDenyHearingDullLiarsFraudArenaMadmenReassuring
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“One thing I hate about the New Deal is that it is killing what, to me, is the American pioneering spirit. I simply do not know what to tell my own boys, leaving school and confronting this new world whose ideal is Security and whose practice is dependence upon government instead of upon one's self. All the old character-values seem simply insane from a practical point of view; the self-reliant, the independent, the courageous man is penalized from every direction.”

KnowsMenWorldSelfCharacterSeemsGovernmentSchoolSpiritValuesHateMy OwnViewsDealsBoysPracticeOne ThingSecurityIdealsI HateIndependentKillingLeavingPoint Of ViewPracticalsInsaneCourageousNew WorldDependenceConfrontingNew DealPioneeringSelf ReliantThings I HateCourageous ManLeaving SchoolPioneering Spirit
Author:Rose Wilder Lane
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“Every place is given its character by certain patterns of events that keep on happening there. These patterns of events are locked in with certain geometric patterns in the space. Indeed, each building and each town is ultimately made out of these patterns in the space, and out of nothing else; they are the atoms and molecules from which a building or a town is made.”

MadeCharacterCertainGivenSpaceEventsBuildingHappeningsTownsPatternsAtomsLockedMoleculesGeometric
Author:Christopher Alexander
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“Average Jones had come by his nickname inevitably. His parents had foredoomed him to it when they furnished him with the initials A. V. R. E. as preface to his birthright of J for Jones. His character apparently justified the chance concomitance. He was, so to speak, a composite photograph of any thousand well-conditioned, clean-living Americans between the ages of twenty-five and thirty.”

WellsCharacterAgeSpeakParentChanceFiveThousandTwentiesCleanPhotographAverageThirtyJustifiedInitialsTwenty FiveBirthrightNicknamesCompositesClean Living
Book:Average Jones
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