Character quotes
14.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside character — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"When a friend calls to me from the road And slows his horse to a meaning walk, I don't stand still and look around On all the hills I haven't hoed, And shout from where I am, What is it? No, not as there is a time to talk. I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground, Blade-end up and five feet tall, And plod: I go up to the stone wall For a friendly visit."
"What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real."
"I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him."
"Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places."
"In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do."
"It's easy to say ''no!'' when there's a deeper ''yes!'' burning inside."
"Those concerns of a national character-such as air and water pollution that do not respect state boundaries, or the national transportation system, or efforts to safeguard your civil liberties-must, of course, be handled on the national level."
"My hope of the future lies in the youths of character, intelligent, renouncing all for the service of others, and obedient - good to themselves and the country at large"
"When it comes to your career, you must always try and allow the positive aspects of your character to dictate what happens to you. Be led by your talent, not by your self-loathing; those other things you just have to manage."
"Life for women in ancient Greece was hard - you had to fight for every inch of ground you got. Both Thetis and Briseis are strong, passionate women and in another time and place their lives would have been very different. Part of the tragedy of their characters is how much they have to offer - and how little of that they get to realize. Thetis spends the whole novel fighting the limitations placed on her, desperately trying to eke out the best she can from a bad situation. This makes her fierce and terrifying."
"A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty - he has suffered longer."
"The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character and not clothing."
"If you have no character to lose, people will have no faith in you."
"Man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness."
"When a company or an individual compromises one time, whether it's on price or principle, the next compromise is right around the corner."
"Character isn't what we think it is or, rather, what we want it to be. It isn't a stable, easily identifiable set of closely related traits, and it only seems that way because of a glitch in the way our brains are organized. Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context."
"Reason must approach nature in order to be taught by it. It must not, however, do so in the character of a pupil who listens to everything that the teacher chooses to say, but of an appointed judge who compels the witness to answer questions which he has himself formulated."
"I was a very unpleasant young man. If I met the young Ingmar today I'd say, 'You're very talented and I'll try to help you, but I don't want anything else to do with you."
"Every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character."
"Politics ruins the character."
