Quotes on Character

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Character, to me, is the life's blood of fiction

Self-mastery is a challenge for every individual. Only we can control our appetites and passions. Self-mastery cannot be bought by money or fame. It is the ultimate test of our character. It requires climbing out of the deep valleys of our lives and scaling our own Mount Everests.

It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

... Societies aren t made of sticks and stones, but of men whose individual characters, by turning the scale one way or another, determine the direction of the whole.

It is our choice of good or evil that determines our character, not our opinion about good or evil.

The best single question for testing an organization's character is: What happens when people make mistakes?

The harm that theology has done is not to create cruel impulses, but to give them the sanction of what professes to be lofty ethic, and to confer an apparently sacred character upon practices which have come down from more ignorant and barbarous times.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

We are all inspired by the incredible stories of handicapped people who write novels with their toes, cancer victims who run marathons for cancer research, bereaved parents who set up memorial funds for their lost children. How much easier is it for most of us to be small heroes simply by taking responsibility for our daily lives and transcending our ordinary obstacles?

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

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels some treasured item of my past, it would pine away in the artificial world where I had so abruptly placed it.

No author has created with less emphasis such pathetic characters as Chekhov has.

The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind.

It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.

Thought-habits can harden into character. So watch your thoughts.