Quotes about: character

Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.
– Eleanor Roosevelt
A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
– Theodore Roosevelt
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
– Theodore Roosevelt
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!
– Theodore Roosevelt
Laws are essential emanations from the self-poised character of God; they radiate from the sun to the circling edge of creation. Verily, the mighty Lawgiver hath subjected himself unto laws.
– Theodore Roosevelt
I would have to say News Radio is the highlight of my career. I love the character so much.
– Stephen Root
It's easier to play a dim character, for me, because I have a natural bent for comedy. It's not intrinsic for me to be crafty, so I would have to go outside for a source of origin. I think of myself as pretty dim.
– Stephen Root
My influences are people like Burgess Meredith, Jackie Gleason, Art Carney. Really good character actors than stars because they do more interesting things. Some of your favorite movies are ones you visit again are due to the great character actors in them.
– Stephen Root
A character I would love to play is Iago, from Othello.
– Tim Roth
There is less pressure as a character actor. It generally means that you will be acting for all of your life, which is my intention. It is not my intention to just be a rich and famous person, that would be pretty boring.
– Tim Roth
For in a literary career there was one unfailing advantage: No degree whatever of moral or social disgrace could disqualify one from practice - and indeed a bad character, if suitably tricked out for presentation, might win one helpful publicity.
– Simon Raven
Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
– Charles Reade
The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.
– Wilhelm Reich
The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.
– Joshua Reynolds
To have character is to be big enough to take life on.
– Mary Caroline Richards
Each instrument has something to say to you. It's got its own character. Each horn has its own character and will say to you certain things. If you violate that, it's almost a sacrilege!
– Jerome Richardson
When I'm thinking of myself in a good light, I think of myself as a character actor, like Peter Sellers or Alec Guiness or Robert Duvall or George Kennedy or Joe Don Baker, all those big Nordic actors. But I always thought of it as a supporting role. And I don't have a problem with that, because I ain't no leadin' man. And it's more fun. I don't have all the pressure on me.
– Andy Richter
The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.
– Edward Vernon Rickenbacker
I am interested in recording an album because it would be an opportunity to express the feelings I have inside, not playing a character. I just think I have this thing inside me, this need to create and to express feelings whether that's in film, or in music which is an emotional expression as well.
– Emily Rossum
I've been in the studio experimenting on making a CD of my own. I'm trying out different producers, styles, sounds. With music, as opposed to acting, you are not playing a character. You are showing people who you are. I really want to have my spirit in it.
– Emily Rossum
If you were to look back at me as a school kid you'd see a very quiet little church mouse kind of character.
– Johnny Rotten
If you're playing a villain, you like to have a rationale. Why is this person behaving in that way? It can't just be 'I'm going to kill them all, I want to take over the world!' Because then your character becomes a functionary, the hero's opposition and nothing else.
– Richard Roxburgh
You have to sort of see the way that the character behaves, and what the character says and does, and claim it in the same way that you claim anything, really.
– Richard Roxburgh
You know honestly I think there's a Dracula, a Wolf Man, and a Frankenstein's Monster in all of us. They are sides of our own character so that's why I think we can relate to them in terms of a 'I know how that feels' kind of thing.
– Richard Roxburgh
Fame is also a test of character at times... Sometimes I pass the test; sometimes I'm a pain in the ass. Sometimes I'm like, 'Oh, God! I just want to buy some tampons!'
– Meg Ryan
Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.
– Cornelius Tacitus
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.
– Henry Taylor
If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
– William Makepeace Thackeray
In violent streets and broken homes, the cry of anguished souls is not for more laws but for more conscience and character.
– Cal Thomas
It's hard sometimes if you think a character should look a certain way and you're being pushed to do it differently. I've had fights over that. That's why it's so important that you work with good people.
– Uma Thurman
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?
– Alexis de Tocqueville
The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
– Leon Trotsky
Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.
– Bayard Taylor
It is the formidable character of the species to routinely seek the improbable, the difficult, even the impossible, as a source of pleasure and self-justification. Who would try to write poems, or novels, or paint pictures unless he is an optimist?
– Lionel Tiger
Character is the final decision to reject whatever is demeaning to oneself or to others and with confidence and honesty choose what is right.
– Arthur Trudeau
Nothing is more difficult and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to one's time (and those one loves) and to say loudly: No!
– Kurt Tucholsky
It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.
– Dale E. Turner
I believe in starting from scratch with each character. It starts with my favourite part of the whole process, reading the script. You're playing Sherlock Holmes to a certain extent. You say, What can I deduce about this character from what's written on this page?
– Karl Urban
The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.
– Abigail Van Buren
I loved Old School. I thought Old School was very different than a lot of the comedies that had come out. And that character I liked. I tried to ground him very much in reality and play him very much finding things important to him that are somewhat ridiculous.
– Vince Vaughn
You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.
– Marquis de Vauvenargues
Intention and realisation, and potential and fulfilment lie very close to one another, which, on the one hand, guarantees the living and spontaneous character of this art, while on the other requires more co-operation on the part of the reader.
– Simon Vestdijk
Learn now of the treachery of the Greeks, and from one example the character of the nation may be known.
– Virgil
It's grown into a personal relationship, yeah. I'm crazy about Jerry. I think he's a unique character.
– Jon Voight
The guy wrote this great piece [with a] great character and wanted somebody to carry that story. Or Jerry Bruckheimer, thinking I can do anything - It's exciting, you know. Michael Mann calling me up and saying, 'What do you think about playing Howard Cosell?' That's a leap of some kind of faith or whatever it is.
– Jon Voight
When he's on the set, he has no movie star stuff going on. He's an actor and he's very good, maybe even especially with this, because he was trying to get this chemistry going between the three characters, between his character and Justin Bartha's and Diane Kruger.
– Jon Voight
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.
– Earl Warren
Character is power.
– Booker T. Washington
Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
– Booker T. Washington
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
– George Washington
The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.
– George Washington
On the stage it is always now; the personages are standing on that razor edge, between the past and the future, which is the essential character of conscious being; the words are rising to their lips in immediate spontaneity The theater is supremely fitted to say: Behold! These things are.
– Thornton Wilder
I once did a role which I couldn't rehearse in my street clothes, I had to have the character's costume on before I could rehearse it. I just couldn't think as the character unless I looked like him, or I knew that I looked like him.
– Tom Wilkinson
You know grief. You've had it in your own life. But I don't use it directly. It's processed through my acting instincts, the bit of me that knows about those things, so when it comes out it's not my grief that you're seeing, it's the grief of that character. It's active imagination.
– Tom Wilkinson
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.
– Tennessee Williams
I think it is really terrifying that we are narrowing down to a mechanistic assessment of children by how many pass exams... if standards meant improving right across the board, character, originality, interests, then I wouldn't mind so much. But it doesn't. It always boils down to the same thing, how will we pass exams.
– Shirley Williams
We have to say now we think the character of the party has changed so far it will take something very exceptional, something really out of the ordinary line to make us be convinced there's a chance of winning back the party.
– Shirley Williams
True character arises from a deeper well than religion.
– Edward O. Wilson
That's one of those things that will really hurt me personally, if I label a character or think about what it might do if it were to do well. I just try to do a good job with it.
– Luke Wilson
Of all the stars whom I worked with, I think Steve knew better what worked for him on the screen than any other. He had such a sense of what he could register, and that helped a lot in terms of shaping the character and the script.
– Robert Wise
The people in general ought to have regard to the moral character of those whom they invest with authority either in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches.
– John Witherspoon
Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
– Stevie Wonder
Eyes lie if you ever look into them for the character of the person.
– Stevie Wonder
Organic buildings are the strength and lightness of the spiders' spinning, buildings qualified by light, bred by native character to environment, married to the ground.
– Frank Lloyd Wright
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.
– Christopher Walken
By action and reaction do we become strong or weak, according to the character of our thoughts and mental states. Fear is the deadly nightshade of the mind.
– Edward Walker
People feel they know me because of my Little Britain characters - But I'm not a Little Britain character. No one knows what I'm really like.
– David Walliams
The true character of ministry is a servants heart.
– Harold Warner
Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.
– J. C. Watts
The original version of the screenplay was much darker, and portrayed the central character as more of an Everyman. It was also set in Manhattan.
– Peter Weir
I think you have to find the humanity in the character and then the deterioration is a part of the process - the journey of the character. It's like playing King Lear. You can start off as a nice old man who finishes up crazy.
– David Wenham
Well you just have to own it, I suppose. Own the character, which is difficult.
– David Wenham
History is made at night. Character is what you are in the dark.
– Lord John Whorfin
Perhaps Vanderbilt's most important role in the interest of our free society is to give the world educated men and women of character, possessing a fundamental integrity that affects both their thoughts and their actions.
– Joe B. Wyatt
The man that makes a character, makes foes.
– Edward Young
Sometimes, a woman filled with all sorts of uncertainties in most of the areas of life and emotion, will have her only confidence and independence in her fashion-sense. I'm sure this is a misfortune. Fashion should not be expected to serve in the stead of courage or character.
– Loretta Young
I had a book, which was stolen, the art of the life of the character, in which you present a whole life in three of four pages. I used that method.
– Marguerite Young
The asexual angel, neither male nor female... unable to live without her mask of illusions... showed herself to be the denuded character every person would be if confronted with the loss of their illusions as she was.
– Marguerite Young
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.
– Billy Zane
It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.
– Zig Ziglar
Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable.
– Anonymous
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they find laughable.
– Anonymous
Character is the salesperson’s stock in trade. The product itself is secondary. Truthfulness, enthusiasm and patience are great assets to every salesperson. Without them, they couldn’t go far. Courage and courtesy are essential equipment.
– George M. Adams
Anybody who would like to travel as an archaeologist of mores and observe men instead of rocks could find an image of the century of Louis XV in some village in Provence, that of Louis XIV in Poitou, that of even more remote times in the far reaches of Brittany. Most of these cities have fallen from some splendor that historians, more preoccupied with dates than customs, no longer speak of, but whose memory lives on, such as in Brittany, where the national character scarcely accepts the forgetting of what this country is fundamentally about. . . All [of these cities] have their primitive character.
– Honore de Balzac
Remember that you are an actor in a play and the playwright chooses the manner of it...your business is to act the character that is given you and act it well; the choice of the cast is another's…
– Epictetus
Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.
– Sam Ewig
To exercise good character daily is to be morally fit for life.
– Karen Hartz
Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced…more true than the truth itself. One far superior to me has well said…, 'A clever imitation in glass casts contempt, as it were, on that precious jewel the emerald...' Lest, therefore, through my neglect, some should be carried off, even as sheep are by wolves, while they perceive not the true character of these men, because they outwardly are covered with sheep's clothing (against whom the Lord has enjoined us to be on our guard), and because their language resembles ours, while their sentiments are very different.
– Irenaeus of Lyons
There is but one rule of conduct for a man ­ to do the right thing. The cost may be dear in money, in friends, in influence, in labor, in a prolonged and painful sacrifice, but the cost not to do right is far more dear: You pay in the integrity of your manhood, in your honor, in strength of character; and, for a timely gain, you barter the infinite.
– Archer G. Jones
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
– Helen Keller
If then the power of speech is as great as any that can be named,—if the origin of language is by many philosophers considered nothing short of divine—if by means of words the secrets of the heart are brought to light, pain of soul is relieved, hidden grief is carried off, sympathy conveyed, experience recorded, and wisdom perpetuated,—if by great authors the many are drawn up into unity, national character is fixed, a people speaks, the past and the future, the East and the West are brought into communication with each other,—if such men are, in a word, the spokesmen and the prophets of the human family—it will not answer to make light of Literature or to neglect its study: rather we may be sure that, in proportion as we master it in whatever language, and imbibe its spirit, we shall ourselves become in our own measure the ministers of like benefits to others—be they many or few, be they in the obscurer or the more distinguished walks of life—who are united to us by social ties, and are within the sphere of our personal influence.
– John Henry Cardinal Newman
I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master.
– Theodore Roosevelt
The ultimate foundation of honor is the conviction that moral character is unalterable: a single bad action implies that future actions of the same kind will, under similar circumstances, also be bad.
– Arthur Schopenhauer
...with the black marble which gives the fireplace the air of a miniature family vault, to suggest early Victorian commercial respectability, belief in money, Bible fetichism, fear of hell always at war with fear of poverty, instinctive horror of the passionate character of art, love and Roman Catholic religion, and all the first fruits of plutocracy in the early generations of the industrial revolution.
– George Bernard Shaw
One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
– Stendhal
Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse. He will go to any length for it-risk fortune, character, reputation, life itself.
– Mark Twain
Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
– John Wooden
The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.
– Douglas Adams
A man has no more character than he can command in a time of crisis.
– Anonymous
To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.
– Aristotle