Character quotes

Character

14.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

14.8K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside character — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Character quotes (page 151 of 739)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

Leonardo DiCaprio Actor, Producer, Environmental Activist
Character

"There's a difference in our ages [with Leonardo DiCaprio], but we were both in the same sort of position [on The Quick and the Death movie].Everyone below us in a casting position were all these really famous character actors like Keith David. And they were looking at the two of us going, 'Who are these guys?' So that naturally kind of put us together in a way where we'd just hang out together because we didn't care about status. We just wanted to enjoy the experience. The two things that have changed about Leo [ DiCaprio] since that time: he can drink legally and he's no longer a virgin."

Read quote 3 likes
Leonardo DiCaprio Actor, Producer, Environmental Activist
Character

"I think everyone has some sort of connection to Gatsby as a character... he's created himself according to his own emotions and dreams and lifted himself by his bootstraps from a poor kid in the Midwest and created this image that is The Great Gatsby and it's a truly American story in that regard."

Read quote 3 likes
Leonardo DiCaprio Actor, Producer, Environmental Activist
Character

"We actually did a lot of takes on this movie [J. Edgar Hoover]. I never left the set wanting more. That's for sure. I don't know. This was a very difficult character for me and a lot of the other actors here, and at times we went and did 8 or 9 or 10 takes on a single day."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry Adams Historian
Character

"As a means of variation from a normal type, sickness in childhood ought to have a certain value not to be classed under any fitness or unfitness of natural selection; and especially scarlet fever affected boys seriously, both physically and in character, though they might through life puzzle themselves to decide whether it had fitted or unfitted them for success."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends' thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed; when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"The humblest observer who goes to the mines sees and says that gold-digging is of the character of a lottery; the gold thus obtained is not the same thing with the wages of honest toil. But, practically, he forgets what he has seen, for he has seen only the fact, not the principle, and goes into trade there, that is, buys a ticket in what commonly proves another lottery, where the fact is not so obvious."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"The outward is only the outside of that which is within. Men are not concealed under habits, but are revealed by them; they are their true clothes."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"The strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit; it is a Spirit's breath. A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks till it succeeds."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the wearer's character, until we hesitate tolay them aside without such delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our bodies."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"Show me a man who feels bitterly toward John Brown, and let me hear what noble verse he can repeat. He'll be as dumb as if his lips were stone."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times; and we must laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of what wisdom and valor and generosity we have. The modern cheap and fertile press, with all its translations, has done little to bring us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity. They seem as solitary, and the letter in which they are printed as rare and curious, as ever."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"If I am to be a thoroughfare, I prefer that it be of the mountain brooks, the Parnassian streams, and not the town sewers. There is inspiration, that gossip which comes to the ear of the attentive mind from the courts of heaven. There is the profane and stale revelation of the barroom and the police court. The same ear is fitted to receive both communications. Only the character of the hearer determines to which it shall be open, and to which closed."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"We falsely attribute to men a determined character - putting together all their yesterdays - and averaging them - we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support - it is worse than a large family - he is the silent poor indeed."

Read quote 3 likes
Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Character

"Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform."

Read quote 3 likes