Quotes about: character

The American character looks always as if it had just had a rather bad haircut, which gives it, in our eyes at any rate, a greater humanity than the European, which even among its beggars has an all too professional air.
– Mary McCarthy
Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.
– Ian Mckellen
Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained.
– John Stuart Mill
Every man should be considered as having a right to the character which he deserves; that is, to be spoken of according to his actions.
– James Mill
He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.
– Arthur Miller
Plots and character don't make life. Life is here and now, anytime you say the word, anytime you let her rip.
– Henry Miller
I never try to completely do a character, if you know what I mean. I always feel like I'm just being me, but in the character's situation.
– Jonny Lee Miller
The character of our enemies testifies to America's greatness.
– James D. Miller
The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.
– John Milton
I'd love to play a gangster but I think people might say I looked a bit too young and cheeky to play a character who'd just blown someones head off!
– Dominic Monaghan
Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.
– Bernard Law Montgomery
Character is what you are in the dark.
– Dwight L. Moody
If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of me.
– Dwight L. Moody
The remarkable character of this achievement is evident in view of the fact that in the period from 1893 to 1898 more than sixty-five per cent of all the railroad mileage in the United States went into the hands of receivers.
– John Moody
As the flow of subliterary news items and anecdotes increases, the writer's work withers and stales until, in grim transference, his life becomes his oeuvre and he his only character.
– Brian Moore
I'm not an actress who can create a character. I play me.
– Mary Tyler Moore
No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.
– John Viscount Morley
No matter how heinous someone's behaviour, if you make them a comic character, you can't expect people to hate them.
– Chris Morris
For better or for worse, our company (The News Corporation Ltd.) is a reflection of my thinking, my character, my values.
– Rupert Murdoch
In the original script, my character was a basketball player rather than a boxer. I didn't think I could pull that off. I'm a little short to be a basketball player!
– Eddie Murphy
The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.
– Thomas Babington Macauley
For 15 years, I've been playing the same character - which is myself - and I'm bored with 'myself'.
– Elle Macpherson
I don't know how many times I can sit there and talk about my character or my life. It's interesting to talk about experiences in the context of something you're doing for somebody else, and particularly if you can persuade others to join you in your support.
– Wendie Malick
I'd rather go back to waitressing than play a character that I hate.
– Julianna Margulies
What is important for me is finding what the composer wants in the character-what is deep in the character. I see it like an empty house.
– Eva Marton
What we do should have a Canadian character. Nobody looks his best in somebody else's clothes.
– Vincent Massey
Honestly, at one time I though Babe Ruth was a cartoon character. I really did, I mean I wasn't born until 1961 and I grew up in Indiana.
– Don Mattingly
The fact that someone is an unattractive character with followers holding rather odd theology, does not mean that they have no civil, legal or constitutional rights. Calling such a group a cult should not deprive them of their rights.
– Alex McColl
The long-established and noble rule of Law, one of the greatest products of the character and tradition of British history, has suffered a deadly blow. Blackmail has become respectable.
– Robert G. Menzies
I have no regrets in my life. I think that everything happens to you for a reason. The hard times that you go through build character, making you a much stronger person.
– Rita Mero
Through his mastery of storytelling techniques, he has managed to separate his character, in the public mind, from his actions as president. He has, in short, mesmerized us with that steady gaze.
– James Nathan Miller
A man of character in peace is a man of courage in war.
– Lord Moran
Character... is a habit, the daily choice of right over wrong; it is a moral quality which grows to maturity in peace and is not suddenly developed on the outbreak of war.
– Lord Moran
The first and last essential of an efficient soldier is character; without it he will not long endure the perils of modern war.
– Lord Moran
To aggravate these adverse influences, the public estimation of the Indian, resting, as it does, upon an imperfect knowledge of his character, and tinctured, as it ever has been, with the coloring of prejudice, is universally unjust.
– Lewis H. Morgan
If the people should elect, they will never fail to prefer some man of distinguished character, or services; some man, if he might so speak of continental reputation.
– Gouverneur Morris
Francis had always been ecumenical in his atheism. He was a sprepared to disbelieve in this Tolca character as he was to disbelieve in Yahweh, Jesus, Buddha, Vishnu or any of the other words for what his father used to call forcing yourself to misperceive the obvious.
– James Morrow
My job is the same, whether they've got a hundred million or half a million. I go in and I play that character to the best of my ability.
– Samantha Morton
We've got very few bodies right now so we were tired, but we've also got a lot of character and we want to win.
– Steve Nash
I've worked all my life to shed myself of any character.
– Sam Neill
My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied.
– Horatio Nelson
I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.
– Paul Newman
Altered opinions do not alter a man's character (or do so very little); but they do illuminate individual aspects of the constellation of his personality which with a different constellation of opinions had hitherto remained dark and unrecognizable.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
To give style to one's character - a great and rare art! He exercises it who surveys all that his nature presents in strength and weakness and then moulds it to an artistic plan until everything appears as art and reason, and even the weaknesses delight the eye.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished.
– Richard Milhous Nixon
You've got to learn to survive a defeat. That's when you develop character.
– Richard Milhous Nixon
A character is a completely fashioned will.
– Novalis
When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.
– Edna O'Brien
All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.
– Flannery O'Connor
In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.
– P. J. O'Rourke
It is true that the politician, in his professional character, does not always, or even very often, conform to the most approved pattern of private conduct.
– Frederick Scott Oliver
When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.
– Sir Laurence Olivier
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
– Frank Outlaw
I don't think you necessarily identify and believe in the motifs of the character, but you have to want to play it and want to commit to the lines.
– Clive Owen
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
– Thomas Paine
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
– Thomas Paine
I don't imagine I would have chosen to spend the last twenty-six years of my life writing about a character whose values and virtues I disdained.
– Robert Parker
Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.
– Charles Henry Parkhurst
Our decade of change has unleashed the ingenuity, creativity, and character of the most extraordinary people in the world - the people of this state, who come from every corner of the globe.
– George E. Pataki
Chris Carter is just a fantastic guy, I have enjoyed working for him, immensely. I loved this character. I don't think I can say enough about Chris. It's just a fantastic thing that he's created and I'm so thrilled that I've been a part of it. I'm very grateful.
– Robert Patrick
I've been doing this 17 years but I can tell you I have more websites now than I have ever had devoted to me or my past career or my character. When I got this show, I think I had two fans out there that had created websites on my behalf.
– Robert Patrick
There was a certain amount of frustration because I thought - and I don't know if this was really true or not - but I thought all everyone wanted me to do was bad guys and villains. That's not me. I'm a normal guy just like everybody else. I'm an actor and I can do other things, too. The T-1000 was a character. It's so far from the real Robert Patrick.
– Robert Patrick
They wrote a great character and it's been fun playing a guy that loves America, loves his job, believes in doing the right thing. Doggett has a lot of codes that he lives by and I think it's a throwback character. I believe in a lot of things Doggett believes in.
– Robert Patrick
You can't think about how people will perceive you or your character. All you can do is focus on your work. The rest is up to the universe. I've been acting for 16 years. I've done 55 movies and, in all seriousness, there's maybe five that are good and the rest are crap.
– Robert Patrick
I'm a musician, and I'm fascinated with the effects of sound, and tone, and pitch and melody and all that sort of stuff. It's the first thing I have to solidify whenever I'm coming up - not 'coming up' with the character, because I never come up with them, the writer does that - whenever I get onto a character. The first thing I need to get sorted out before I can then move forward, before I can feel any confidence whatsoever, is the voice.
– Guy Pearce
Inside of all the makeup and the character and makeup, it's you, and I think that's what the audience is really interested in... you, how you're going to cope with the situation, the obstacles, the troubles that the writer put in front of you.
– Gregory Peck
I lost 90 pounds and my blood pressure went down to a normal level and the salt in my urine disappeared. And that was when I had to make the transition from fat character actor to thin character actor.
– Ron Perlman
I'd like to play every type of character, but only once. I like to expierence things.
– River Phoenix
I'm really normal. I play football, go to the beach, drive. We have dogs. I can imagine people calling me a character, but I'm Joe Straight.
– River Phoenix
Whoever has the luck to be born a character can laugh even at death. Because a character will never die! A man will die, a writer, the instrument of creation: but what he has created will never die!
– Luigi Pirandello
The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.
– Plato
I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.
– Titus Maccius Plautus
Character is simply habit long continued.
– Plutarch
In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
– Plutarch
If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
– Alexander Pope
If you're writing a book that takes place in New York in the moment, you can't not write about 9-11; you can't not integrate it. My main character's view is the Statue of Liberty and the Trade Center. It doesn't have to take over, but it has to be acknowledged.
– Richard Price
The end and aim of all education is the development of character.
– Francis W. Parker
When I first saw the character Chel, I was really bothered because she used to have these really thick tree trunk ankles and I was like, Come on, you gave her everything else and you gotta ruin it with tree trunks. Just slim down the ankles some. That was my only request. And Jeffrey Katzenberg was like, GGGOOOOOODDDD, under his breath.
– Rosie Perez
Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.
– Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
The real judges of your character aren't your neighbors, your relatives, or even the people you play bridge with. The folks who really know you are waiters, waitresses, and clerks.
– Katherine Piper
I'd just like to see a role for women where someone who isn't traditionally attractive is not portraying the best friend. You know, the character that only speaks in questions. 'Gee, are you gonna go out with him? Do you think I look fat?'
– Martha Plimpton
Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our government.
– James Knox Polk
I said, 'Wouldn't it be great if Matt Damon's character fell in love with a girl with a real butt?' They were like, 'Yeah sure, sure - here's your personal trainer.'
– Franka Potente
Shakespeare's Hamlet can be performed in 50,000 different ways. It is the character who lends a special touch to the role.
– Amrish Puri
I was and am still, a big fan of Laurel and Hardy. I was especially taken with Ollie. It was such a complex character. He played this total bully, coward and was utterly pretentious but you loved him all the same.
– Paul Putner
Doyle's an intense character. Doyle's trying to atone for his own past and he has to help Angel-but he doesn't want to become too involved. On one hand, here he is preaching to Angel to get involved with humans and really care about them, but meanwhile Doyle would rather be at the track betting the ponies and drinking.
– Glenn Quinn
God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.
– Marcus Fabius Quintilian
Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another.
– Ayn Rand
Pee-wee Herman just kind of came out one day. I had a lot of training, I had done rap, classical, Shakespeare. I was in four or five different acting programs in different schools. I joined this improv group, and we did a lot of different character work, writing and improv. And just one day it... came out.
– Paul Reubens
I don't know what the big issue is about a kiss with Neve Campbell in Wild Things. It's a role, and I think a bigger issue is made out of it. It was a part I took and it's what the character did, so I did it.
– Denise Richards
A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's.
– Jean Paul Richter
We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.
– Jean Paul Richter
You can be true to the character all you want but you've got to go home with yourself.
– Julia Roberts
However dark and profitless, however painful and weary, existence may have become, life is not done, and our Christian character is not won, so long as God has anything left for us to suffer, or anything left for us to do.
– Frederick William Robertson
A nation is truly corrupt, when, after having, by degrees lost its character and liberty, it slides from democracy into aristocracy or monarchy; this is the death of the political body by decrepitude.
– Maximilien Robespierre
Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
– Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit... a reputation, character.
– John D. Rockefeller
Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable.
– Norman Rockwell
Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.
– Jim Rohn