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Character Quotes

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Character Quotes

“The explanation of types of structure in classes - as resulting from the will of the Deity, to create animals on certain plans - is no explanation. It has not the character of a physical law and is therefore utterly useless. It foretells nothing because we know nothing of the will of the Deity, how it acts and whether constant or inconstant like that of man.”

KnowsMenCharacterLawCertainAnimalClassPlansTypeStructureConstantUselessExplanationDeities
Author:Charles Darwin
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“The great purpose is to set aside a reasonable part of the vanishing wilderness, to make certain that generations of Americans yet unborn will know what it is to experience life on undeveloped, unoccupied land in the same form and character as the Creator fashioned it... It is a great spiritual experience. I never knew a man who took a bedroll into an Idaho mountainside and slept there under a star-studded summer sky who felt self-important that next morning. Unless we preserve some opportunity for future generations to have the same experience, we shall have dishonored our trust.”

KnowsMenImportantSelfCharacterSpiritualFormPurposeCertainNextOpportunityStarsFeltMorningGenerationsSkyLandSummerCreatorPreservesReasonableWildernessFuture GenerationUnbornVanishingSpiritual ExperienceIdahoGreat Spiritual
Author:Frank Church
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“Paranoia imposes its own vision on the external world; it differs from other kinds of visionary experience in that the paranoid wants others to share his view—even insists on it. Paranoia is very like poetic creativity. This accounts for my fascination with certain people in whom this state of mind was evident: ‘characters’ met by chance, whose words and gestures would haunt me for years until, finally, in a poem I was able to dispel them.”

PeopleWorldWantYearsMindKindStatesCharacterAbleCertainChanceViewsVisionCreativityShareMetsAccountsPoeticState Of MindGesturesEvidentFascinationVisionariesParanoiaParanoid
Author:Louis Simpson
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“The whole gamut of good and evil is in every human being, certain notes, from stronger original quality or most frequent use, appearing to form the whole character; but they are only the tones most often heard. The whole scale is in every soul, and the notes most seldom heard will on rare occasions make themselves audible.”

HumansSoulWholeCharacterUseFormCertainEvilHuman BeingsQualityHeardStrongerOriginalsNotesScalesOccasionsToneGood And EvilAppearingRare Occasion
Author:Fanny Kemble
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“I very easily decide in certain situations that I'm an outsider. That's just my own craziness. I think that I have sympathy for those characters who are like that, but I love it when the humor comes from a character who is serious about his situation - only the way he's thinking about it is all wrong, or the ways he's solving his problems are never going to work.”

ThinkingWayCharacterProblemCertainMy OwnSituationSeriousOutsidersGoing To WorkCraziness
Author:Jonathan Coulton
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“At whatever time highly skilled physicians shall have developed the healing of illnesses by means of foods, and shall make provision for simple foods, and shall prohibit humankind from living as slaves to their lustful appetites, it is certain that the incidence of chronic and diversified illnesses will abate, and the general health of all mankind will be much improved. This is destined to come about. In the same way, in the character, the conduct and the manners of men, universal modifications will be made.”

MenWayMeanMadeCharacterCertainSimpleHealingMankindUniversalSlaveIllnessMannersAppetiteHumankindPhysiciansDestinedProvisionModificationLustfulIncidenceSimple Food
Author:Abdu'l-Bahá
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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.”

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Author:Christopher Alexander
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“One of the things particularly admirable in the public utterances of President Lincoln is a certain tone of familiar dignity, which, while it is perhaps the most difficult attainment of mere style, is also no doubtful indication of personal character. There must be something essentially noble in an elective ruler who can descend to the level of confidential ease without forfeiting respect, something very manly in one who can break through the etiquette of his conventional rank and trust himself to the reason and intelligence of those who have elected him.”

ReasonCharacterCertainDifficultPresidentLevelsBreakStyleDignityMereNobleFamiliarEaseToneRulersConventionalEtiquetteAttainmentAdmirableIndicationDoubtfulManlyBreak ThroughUtteranceConfidentialPersonal CharacterPresident Lincoln
Book:Abraham Lincoln
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“The truth has no need to be uttered to be made apparent, and ... one may perhaps gather it with more certainty, without waiting for words and without even taking any account of them, from countless outward signs, even from certain invisible phenomena, analogous in the sphere of human character to what atmospheric changes are in the physical world.”

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Book:In Search of Lost Time, Volume III: The Guermantes Way
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“As we have come to understand the psychology of evil, we have realized that such transformations of human character are not as rare as we would like to believe. Historical inquiry and behavioral science have demonstrated the "banality of evil" -- that is, under certain conditions and social pressures, ordinary people can commit acts that would otherwise be unthinkable.”

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Author:Philip Zimbardo
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“I don't know where the characters are going to go or what's going to happen. I know that something inevitable will happen. I know that they want certain things and they're in a certain room and they smell like this and they look like that. More often than not, an entropy creeps in that strangles me, and then the inevitable happens. I don't know if I have the ability to write an ending like My Fair Lady's, when everyone gets what they want after a few minor conflicts. If I tried to write that it would just be false. Or I'd have someone enter with a machine gun.”

IfsKnowsWantWritingLooksCharacterHappensCertainAbilityRoomsConflictGunFairsMachinesSmellInevitableMinorsCreepsEntropyMachine GunsMy Fair Lady
Author:Adam Rapp
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“There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true, and, in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.”

IfsLooksMayCountryCharacterGovernmentSpiritCertainPartyLibertyOpinionAliveLimitsCastsFavorsChecksAdministrationPolitical PartiesIndulgenceBe EncouragedFree CountryFarewell Address
Book:Journal of the convention of the state of Mississippi, and the act calling the same: with the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's Farewell Address
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“Grace in women has more effect than beauty. We sometimes see a certain fine self-possession, an habitual voluptuousness of character, which reposes on its own sensations and derives pleasure from all around it, that is more irresistible than any other attraction. There is an air of languid enjoyment in such persons, "in their eyes, in their arms, and their hands, and their face," which robs us of ourselves, and draws us by a secret sympathy towards them.”

PersonsSelfSometimesCharacterHandsEyeFacesCertainPleasureSecretGraceAirEffectsArmsFineDrawsPossessionAttractionEnjoymentSensationsIrresistibleReposeHabitual
Book:Sketches and Essays: And Winterslow (essays Written There).
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“There is a certain artificial polish, a commonplace vivacity acquired by perpetually mingling in the beau monde; which, in the commerce of world, supplies the place of natural suavity and good-humour, but is purchased at the expense of all original and sterling traits of character.”

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Book:The works
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“There is a certain period of the soul-culture when it begins to interfere with some of characters of typical beauty belonging to the bodily frame, the stirring of the intellect wearing down the flesh, and the moral enthusiasm burning its way out to heaven, through the emaciation of the earthen vessel; and there is, in this indication of subduing the mortal by the immortal part, an ideal glory of perhaps a purer and higher range than that of the more perfect material form. We conceive, I think, more nobly of the weak presence of Paul than of, the fair and ruddy countenance of David.”

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Author:John Ruskin
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“When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel. The author is aware that there's a certain amount of information she/he has to provide in order to satisfy the reader, knowing that she/he has set something up that must be paid off, but this payment must be made while maintaining fidelity to the characters.”

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Author:David Bezmozgis
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