Character quotes

Anonymous

Character is like a tree, and reputation like its shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Boswell James 1740-1795

Boswell's London Journal

We may be in some degree whatever  character we choose.

Broun Heywood 1888-1939

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Emerson Ralph Waldo 1803-1882

Character is that which can do without success.

Froude James A. 1818-1894

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

Goethe Johann von 1749-1832

Character, in great and little things, means  carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe Johann von 1749-1832

Torquato Tasso

Talent develops in quiet places, character  in the full current of human life.

Helps Sir Arthur 1813-1875

Men of much depth of mind can bear a great deal of counsel; for it does  not easily deface their own character, nor render their purposes indistinct.

Keats John 1795-1821

Endymion (preface)

The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a  man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul
is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the  ambition thicksighted: thence proceeds mawkishness.

King Martin Luther 1929-1968

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the  sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood ... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live
in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their  skin but by the content of their character.

La Rochefoucauld François Duc de 1613-1680

Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our  strength of character.

Lermontov Mikhail 1814-1841

A Hero of our Time

I have always been the essential  character of the fifth act.

Lowell James Russell 1819-1891

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

Mann Horace 1796-1859

Character is what God and the angels know of us; reputation is what men and women think of us.

Moody D.L. 1837-1899

If I take care of my character, my  reputation will take care of itself.

Napoléon I (Bonaparte) 1769-1821

In war, three-quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter.

Novalis 1772-1801

Character is perfectly educated will.

Novalis 1772-1801

Heinrich von Ofterdingen

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

Plutarch AD c. 46-c.120

Character is long-standing habit.

Reade Charles 1814-1884

(attributed)

Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap  a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

Reagan Ronald 1911-

You can tell a lot about a fellow's  character by his way of eating jellybeans.

Roosevelt Eleanor 1884-1962

Character building begins in our infancy, and continues until death.

Sheridan Richard Brinsley 1751-1816

The School for Scandal

Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.

Spencer Herbert 1820-1903

Social Statics

Education has for its object the formation of character.

Stendhal 1783-1842

One can acquire everything in solitude except character.

Stendhal 1783-1842

If you want to be witty, work on your character  and say what you think on every occasion.

Thackeray William Makespeace 1811-1863

Vanity Fair

If a man's character is to be abused, say what you will, there's nobody like a relation to do the business.

Wilson Woodrow 1856-1924

If you think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself.

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