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Quotes about: character


Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.
– Anthony Robbins
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You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
– James D. Miles
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The way a man wins shows most of his character; the way he loses shows all of it.
– Kevin M. Clear
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Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.
– Phillip Brooks
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Poverty is the schoolmaster of character.
– Antiphanes
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Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
– Albert Einstein
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Character is the total of thousands of small daily strivings to live up to the best that is in us.
– Arthur Trudeau
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Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
– James A. Michener
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Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.
– Zig Ziglar
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Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
– Abraham Lincoln
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Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
– John Wooden
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Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.
– William Ellery Channing
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When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.
– Japanese Proverb
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The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.
– John Holt
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Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
– H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
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I do not think that the effect of good environment, of fine buildings, of pleasant homes, upon the character, temperament, will, disposition, and energy of the people sufficiently dawns upon the average citizen.
– Thomas Adams
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It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
– Aeschylus
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Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.
– Aesop
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Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality.
– Edward Albee
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She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.
– Louisa May Alcott
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It is a rare American who does not have some story about how music has made our lives richer and more interesting, how it has changed our moods, brought out the best in our character and even sometimes helped us earn a living.
– Lamar Alexander
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I am confident that with the wholesome character of our American people, justice will prevail and liberty will endure.
– George Allen
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The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
– James Allen
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It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them -- the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
– Fyodor Dostoevsky
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None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.
– Marian Anderson
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I laugh when I end up on the worst-dressed lists. I'm not trying to be fashionable. I know I'm kind of a cartoon character. Do people honestly think I'm wearing a kafkan in order to be fashionable?
– Pamela Anderson
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I am more spontaneous than my character.
– Gillian Anderson
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The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.
– Maya Angelou
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What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
– Aristotle
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Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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I love to come in and play with a wig or glasses or clothes. I love using props. I'm from the Peter Sellers school of trying to prepare for the character.
– Dan Aykroyd
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I'm a died-in-the-wool Canadian liberal so there's certain aspects of my character that would have like to have seen a Democratic victory in this nation here, but now that the President has bee re-elected I think its incumbent upon us to all stop moping and give him the 4 years to finish off this conflict.
– Dan Aykroyd
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It is soldiers who pay most of the human cost. In war it is extraordinary how it all comes down to the character of one man.
– Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.
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There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.
– George Matthew Adams
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If taxes are laid upon us without our having a legal representation where they are laid, we are reduced from the character of free subjects to the state of tributary slaves.
– Sam Adams
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Always, your work is the same: You have to tell a story, you have to make a character. It doesn't matter if there are thousands of dollars, millions behind it, or if there is nothing.
– Elena Anaya
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Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.
– Walter Anderson
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Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.
– Sir Francis Bacon
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An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.
– Robert Baden-Powell
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In the best farce to-day we start with some absurd premise as to character or situation, but if the premises be once granted we move logically enough to the ending.
– George P. Baker
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If you are passionate and truthful, you find success. There are a more people who have lasted forever as actors earlier because films used to be character driven and now they are mostly plot driven. Much of the most delicate work being done today is on television. It often has the best acting because of their ability to be truthful.
– Alec Baldwin
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I look for an interesting and oftentimes, fresh character. Something different that what is done all the time or than I've done recently. I look at who is directing. Thos two variables as well as a third, which is the content and the quality of the screenplay. I look at the arcs of the scenes and characters and relationships.
– William Baldwin
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A single bad habit will mar an otherwise faultless character, as an ink-drop soileth the pure white page.
– Hosea Ballou
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Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character.
– Hosea Ballou
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For me it is beautiful that because there is a character in the film that speaks with a Spanish accent, the Spanish-speakers answer to that. The studios know that there is an audience there that shouldn't be misused. They are part of the American melting pot.
– Antonio Banderas
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My initial response was to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I had no character.
– Charles Barkley
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During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.
– Bernard Baruch
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A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.
– Henry Ward Beecher
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The test of Christian character should be that a man is a joy-bearing agent to the world.
– Henry Ward Beecher
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Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up.
– Max Beerbohm
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Martial arts is not about fighting; it's about building character.
– Bo Bennett
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The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself.
– Bo Bennett
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In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale. Diversity of character is due to their unequal activity.
– Ambrose Bierce
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Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them.
– Napoleon Bonaparte
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I have discovered that we may be in some degree whatever character we choose. Besides, practice forms a man to anything.
– James Boswell
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I put myself into character for my songs.
– Michelle Branch
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Highly educated young people are tutored, taught and monitored in all aspects of their lives, except the most important, which is character building. When it comes to this, most universities leave them alone.
– David Brooks
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We, as individuals, are fast losing our reputation for honest dealing. Our nation is losing its character. The loss of a firm national character, or the degredation of a nation's honour, is the inevitable prelude to her destruction.
– William Wells Brown
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It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.
– Jean de la Bruyere
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It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.
– Jean de la Bruyere
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No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.
– Edward Bulwer-Lytton
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Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.
– Robert Burns
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Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.
– George W. Bush
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Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and character.
– George W. Bush
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Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.
– Samuel Butler
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Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgement will always be in demand under all conditions.
– Roger Babson
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Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down within incredible swiftness.
– Faith Baldwin
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I don't prefer the guest star, one-shots. The arcs are more interesting because they give you more time to work through the character and they tend to give you more close-ups, which is what television is all about.
– Adam Baldwin
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There are two ways to go about it. You can take a compass and draw a perfect circle and make two perfect eyes as neat as can be. Or you can do it freehand and have some fun with it. Like I did. Give it character.
– Harvey Ball
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I sort of leave the character at the end of the day. I don't carry anything around with me - no excess baggage or unnecessary thoughts. I think it's too exhausting to do that. To put things into perspective - your work is your work, and your leisure time is something else.
– Sean Bean
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I think that you always have something left, that you take something of the character with you.
– Sean Bean
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If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it.
– Sean Bean
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But in action, one defies one's character.
– Daniel Bell
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Blood is stronger than water; and, if either individual or national character be worth a farthing, it is not to be annihilated by any union - the multitudinous seas will not wash it out.
– Henry Glassford Bell
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I'm sure it would be fun annihilating all my enemies too. I'm not really drawn to that, but as a character I can see it being a lot of fun.
– Adrien Brody
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Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
– Heywood Broun
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Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.
– Paul Bryant
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Your morals and general character are strictly inquired into; it is therefore expected that you will improve every leisure moment in the acquirement of knowledge of your profession and you will recollect that a good moral character is essential to your high standing in the Navy.
– Franklin Buchanan
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We not only interpret the character of events... we may also interpret our interpretations.
– Kenneth Burke
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I always start from scratch with a character - they're never based on anyone else. You get ideas of what people look like, and I'm a great people watcher. You can draw inspiration from people.
– Amanda Burton
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Actually, I get a little say in what my character would or wouldn't do.
– Steve Burton
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Someone called my character the Meg Ryan of the Broken Hearts bunch. Now maybe the perception is that I'm a Meg Ryan type.
– Dean Cain
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Getting the audience to cry for the Terminator at the end of T2, for me that was the whole purpose of making that film. If you can get the audience to feel emotion for a character that in the previous film you despised utterly and were terrified by, then that's a cinematic arc.
– James Cameron
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I have glimpsed what is so great about our state. I have witnessed the character, compassion and resilience of our people's soul.
– Donald L. Carcieri
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I'll spare you the actors' pretentious rubbish, but a face reflects experience, so if you concentrate on a character something happens to you physically. Many actors look at the costume before the part, and that seems crazy to me. It's much more fun to be ugly. Not that I think I'm ugly, but I've never considered myself good-looking.
– Robert Carlyle
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I'm in four different films this year, and I have four different accents. I sound different in every film. You have to love a character to play it well, and change in my work is what I want.
– Robert Carlyle
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The darker the character, the more interesting.
– Robert Carlyle
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While Richard was listening to music in the basement, I was out playing baseball and football, and playing with my machine gun! I was very tomboyish, quite a character, I hear!
– Karen Carpenter
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God is a character, a real and consistent being, or He is nothing. If God did a miracle He would deny His own nature and the universe would simply blow up, vanish, become nothing.
– Joyce Cary
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To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent. A reporter can write equally well about everything that is presented to his view, but a creative writer can do his best only with what lies within the range and character of his deepest sympathies.
– Willa Cather
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[Imagination] helps me to become part of that journey that I'm going through in font of the camera, or in front of an audience. I used to think you had to disappear within a character, but I find that puts a mask on what I do.
– Kim Cattrall
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People assume that for me to play a sexually open character like Samantha, I must have had fabulous sex for most of my life.
– Kim Cattrall
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The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.
– Miguel de Cervantes
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Life at university, with its intellectual and inconclusive discussions at a postgraduate level is on the whole a bad training for the real world. Only men of very strong character surmount this handicap.
– Paul Chambers
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Sometimes apparent resemblance of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.
– Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort
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Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.
– William Ellery Channing
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I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.
– Charlie Chaplin
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Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of the character, though few can decypher even fragments of their meaning.
– Lydia M. Child
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Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.
– John Ciardi
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A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
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