Quotes about: character

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.
– Vince Gill
I usually start with a repulsive character and go on from there.
– Chester Gould
It's a challenge to take a character and make sure he ages correctly and make sure he looks like he would look if he were to get a year older.
– Mary Grandpre
If you are inclined to leave your character solitary for any considerable length of time, better question yourself. Fiction is association, not withdrawal.
– A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
It is the addition of strangeness to beauty that constitutes the romantic character in art.
– Walter Hagen
The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.
– Thomas Chandler Haliburton
I was very limited in what I could do with flying saucers, because they're just a metal disc. I had to try and put character in as if they were intelligently guided.
– Ray Harryhausen
I think Giles' journey has been fascinating. I think that's what made it such a joy to play. The character was never static; you never knew what his deal was. And you still don't know what his deal is. The conflicts I was given to play are not soapy, they're not silly things or huge story arcs.
– Anthony Stewart Head
Both matter and radiation possess a remarkable duality of character, as they sometimes exhibit the properties of waves, at other times those of particles. Now it is obvious that a thing cannot be a form of wave motion and composed of particles at the same time - the two concepts are too different.
– Werner Heisenberg
Most horror films fail to scare me. I think The Ring plays more as a psychological thriller. It's smarter, there's more character development and some of the themes explored go a little deeper.
– Martin Henderson
To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.
– Katharine Hepburn
A man's character is his guardian divinity.
– Heraclitus
Character is destiny.
– Heraclitus
Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.
– Heraclitus
Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
– Napoleon Hill
To be honest, I think for part of my late teens my character didn't really develop very much. I was in a state of cold storage.
– Damon Hill
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'
– Alfred Hitchcock
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 thick-sighted: thence proceeds mawkishness.
– Eric Hoffer
A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
The things that unite the Australian and American people are shared values: the belief that the individual is more important than the state, that strong families are a nation's greatest asset, that competitive free enterprise is the ultimate foundation of national wealth, and that the worth of a person is determined by that person's character and hard work, not by their religion or race or colour or creed or social background.
– John Howard
Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support and opens the way to wealth, honor and happiness.
– John Howe
Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals.
– David Hume
It seemed to me... that the only valid people to deal with crime were cops, and I would like to make the lead character, rather than a single person, a squad of cops.
– Evan Hunter
Nudes are the greatest to paint. Everything you can find in a landscape or a still life or anything else is there: darkness and light, character dimension, texture. I painted heads too, of course.
– John Hurt
One of the many reasons for the bewildering and tragic character of human existence is the fact that social organization is at once necessary and fatal. Men are forever creating such organizations for their own convenience and forever finding themselves the victims of their home-made monsters.
– Aldous Huxley
Englishmen have very noble and excellent qualities which I should like to see imitated here, but I should not like to imitate them in everything. I like our own habits and character better, they are more consonant to my nature; I like our own turn of thought, our own characteristics, and above all I like our own language.
– Douglas Hyde
I - and there are hundreds of thousands of Irishmen who felt on this subject as I do - have always liked my Celtic countrymen and disliked the English nation; it is a national trait of character, and I cannot help it.
– Douglas Hyde
I believe for example that the character of the people has deteriorated in the east of the County Leitrim and in the County Lonford, where Irish died out a generation ago.
– Douglas Hyde
I do not like assassins, or men of low character.
– Gene Hackman
He has the common feeling of his profession. He enjoys a statement twice as much if it appears in fine print, and anything that turns up in a footnote... takes on the character of divine revelation.
– Margaret Halsey
I think theatre has given me the opportunity to show what a character actor I can be.
– Mark Hamill
In the opulence of its set, its cast was remarkably adept and it was richly endowed with character actors able, indeed anxious, to play cameo roles.
– Alan Hamilton
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
– Henry Hancock
What a person praises is perhaps a surer standard, even, than what he condemns, of his character, information, and abilities. No wonder, then, that most people are so shy of praising anything.
– Augustus Hare
I think you always learn something in every character you play onstage, either personally or creatively.
– Jared Harris
I think people are shocked when I do other characters. Right now I'm doing a little workshop play in New York and at the Groundlings [an L.A. improv troupe] and I play a completely other character - I think they are shocked when I'm not Jack. Slowly people are seeing outside of the box and realizing that I became an actor to play other roles and not just one role for the rest of my life. I'm writing stuff for myself, too, because some people don't get that I want to do other things.
– Sean Hayes
I'm a character actor at heart.
– Shuler Hensley
A university's essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism-a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.
– Richard Hofstadter
The delicate thing about the university is that it has a mixed character, that it is suspended between its position in the eternal world, with all its corruption and evils and cruelties, and the splendid world of our imagination.
– Richard Hofstadter
Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.
– Hal Holbrook
I like to get into a situation that is real, where I can say, 'Here's a chance to react as a human being, not some wound-up doll or robot that goes round and round a track, or a cardboard cut-out like the character I played in 'The Towering Inferno'.
– William M. Holden
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 W. Holt, Jr.
I was lucky to be able to call Christopher Reeve a friend.His passion for life and for improving the lives of all Americans serves an inspiration to all of us. He may have played the character of Superman in the movies, but he lived the role of a superman through his life.
– James Jeffords
I want balance. I want to see as many black professionals as possible. I don't care if a guy plays a wild, broad, completely downtrodden character, but I also want to see an average joe; the middle class has been completely unrepresented.
– Orlando Jones
That was one of the things that interested me about the character. He doesn't want to be a hero, and has no real desire to save the earth or discover aliens. He's sniffing around looking to see what will fall in his lap.
– Orlando Jones
Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.
– Yousuf Karsh
A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability.
– John F. Kennedy
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I always try to find something I admire about every character I play.
– Ben Kingsley
I always try to make whatever character I'm playing a completely whole human being, with integrity, morality-or the lack of. I try to give the audience an opportunity of looking at the screen and recognising something.
– Ben Kingsley
I do despair sometimes. I was working with an actor recently who was so passionate to get into the role of a... borderline personality case, to say the least, that he would be shouting and screaming and pumping up and doing press-ups before the take and kicking the furniture - and hurting his hand once he banged it so hard... he forgot all his lines! Forgot everything, he'd exhausted the character off the set and arrived a wreck.
– Ben Kingsley
I think that you can fall into bad habits with comedy... It's a tightrope to stay true to the character, true to the irony, and allow the irony to happen.
– Ben Kingsley
It's always very touching when you find a character on the screen who is fiercely defending your character.
– Ben Kingsley
The close up in any great film is also telling the audience exactly where that character is. So you see it's very cinematographic stuff. Shakespeare lends itself so beautifully to film.
– Ben Kingsley
The trick is to try and justify every word on the page and make sure my character is the man who would say that.
– Ben Kingsley
For me, each nuance of a color is in some way an individual, a being who is not only from the same race as the base color, but who definitely possesses a distinct character and personal soul.
– Yves Klein
I'm always looking for a low-budget script with an interesting character to play.
– Walter Koenig
This is something that I cannot get over - that a whole line could be written by half a man, that a work could be built on the quicksand of a character.
– Karl Kraus
The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. It reflects neither character nor soul, nor what we call the self. The face is only the serial number of a specimen.
– Milan Kundera
Whenever I play a role, whether it's good or bad, an evil person or nice person, I believe in being a purist and going all the way with the role. If I'm going to be a villainous wrestler, I believe in going all the way with it and not breaking character and not giving away to the audience that I'm playing a role. I believe in playing it straight to the hilt.
– Andy Kaufman
I do give a great deal of forethought and zone in on character and all sorts of things like that. Never before have I just stuffed something away in the back cupboard of my brain because it was just such a crazy concept.
– Greg Kinnear
By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.
– Grenville Kleiser
The life and legacy of Ronald Reagan so shifted the paradigm of the American Presidency and the character of our nation that it becomes easy to overlook some of the smaller, more personal changes he brought to his office.
– John Kline
Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.
– Charles Krauthammer
Have not prisons - which kill all will and force of character in man, which enclose within their walls more vices than are met with on any other spot of the globe - always been universities of crime?
– Peter Kropotkin
Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.
– Lewis H. Lapham
The other side cannot beat us with the strength of their ideas. They are resorting to the same tactics they used against Senator Daschle--personal attacks on family members and attacks on character. This is shameless behavior.
– Frank Lautenberg
Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character.
– Johann Kaspar Lavater
I wasn't a kid who moved out from Iowa with aspirations of becoming a famous star-I was intrigued by the idea of filmmaking and by the idea of what it would be like to play a character in a movie.
– Jason Lee
I was assured that my role as Lila Quartermaine would remain open, The writers had already written the storyline that my character had been in a serious automobile accident. Going back to work did more to speed my recovery than all the medication and treatment. It was the best therapy.
– Anna Lee
The thing is, I want to play real characters and not all girls can be pretty. The thing is, you get these girls who say 'I'm a character actor' then you see them in a role and nothing has really changed but the outfit.
– Juliette Lewis
A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Character matters; leadership descends from character.
– Rush Limbaugh
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
– Abraham Lincoln
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
– Abraham Lincoln
I think sometimes I'm more fond of doing the research for the character because you learn so much. Sometimes shooting is really difficult because you wake up early and you're always hurrying. And sometimes I don't know what I'm doing. I'm here and there.
– Bai Ling
Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.
– Walter Lippmann
The discipline of desire is the background of character.
– John Locke
Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There's really nothing wrong with what I do. I act. I create a character. And I bring an awful lot of people an awful lot of joy.
– Jack Lord
Irritability is immaturity of character. If you are subject to being cross and unpleasant with others for no apparent reason, you need to come face-to-face with the fact that you are thinking too much of yourself. After all, your feelings are not the most important thing in this world.
– Lawrence G. Lovasik
Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.
– Lawrence G. Lovasik
Good luck is the willing handmaid of a upright and energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.
– James Russell Lowell
Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.
– John Lubbock
Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are to some extent a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece by thought, choice, courage and determination.
– John Luther
I mean, Jim's Dad is the character - you're not just laughing at what he's saying, you're laughing at who he is... On SCTV , we used to say, 'If somebody were to look at these scripts, they would wonder, who's investing money in putting this on?' Because you can't find a joke, you can't find, honestly, a funny line.
– Eugene Levy
I'll look at the script and go, 'This is great. Ooooh, and I love this character, [but] I'm not thrilled with the way it's written.' But you can see how the character should work. So I usually do a lot of re-writing to make sure the character comes through my own eyes.
– Eugene Levy
I am definitely not scared of Mike Tyson. I am at the top of the food chain and he is looking to knock me off. Mike's an arrogant imbecile. He sounds like a cartoon character.
– Lennox Lewis
Each of my symphonies has a fresh character with a specific definition of their own.
– George Lloyd
The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The American mood, perhaps even the American character, has changed. There are few manifestations any longer of the old American self-assurance which so irritated Dickens. Instead, there is a sense of frustration so perceptible that even our politicians have attempted to exploit it.
– Archibald MacLeish
I love exploring psychology and getting inside someone's head or exploring the dynamics of how couples behave, and I would love to continue finding projects where I have the chance to address those kinds of issues. And sometimes there are going to be moments in my life where I will probably want to play some wild or sick character just to shake things up. I can't just be that nice, reserved guy all the time!
– Tobey Maguire
I might have some character traits that some might see as innocence or naive. That's because I discovered peace and happiness in my soul. And with this knowledge, I also see the beauty of human life.
– Tobey Maguire
Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them. Failure is... the highway to success.
– Og Mandino
Your outlook upon life, your estimate of yourself, your estimate of your value are largely colored by your environment. Your whole career will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings, by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day.
– Orison Swett Marden
Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.
– Orison Swett Marden
The sculptor will chip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character, Everything must give way to that. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, manhood is everything.
– Orison Swett Marden
Competing at the highest level is the greatest test of one's character.
– Russell Mark
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
– W. Somerset Maugham
If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.
– Andre Maurois