Character quotes

Character

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

14.8K quotes

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Character quotes (page 65 of 739)

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Julien Green Novelist, Playwright
Character

"Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them."

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Joseph Campbell Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Character

"The usual marriage in traditional cultures was arranged for by the families. It wasn't a person-to-person decision at all. . . . In the Middle Ages, that was the kind of marriage that was sanctified by the Church. And so the troubadour idea of real person-to-person Amor was very dangerous. . . . It is in direct contradiction to the way of the Church. The word AMOR spelt backwards is ROMA, the Roman Catholic Church, which was justifying marriages that were simply political and social in their character. And so came this movement validating individual choice, what I call following your bliss."

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Marshall McLuhan Philosopher, Media Theorist
Character

"The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media--movies, Telstar, flight--far surpassesany possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world's a sage."

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Leader
Character

"We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate."

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Mary McCarthy Author
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 all too much a professional air."

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Michel de Montaigne Philosopher, Writer
Character

"Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is...opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation."

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Miguel Angel Ruiz Author, Spiritual Teacher
Character

"I don't take anything personally. I am a secondary character in other people's stories. I know that whatever people say about me is just a projection of their image of me. It has nothing to do with me."

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Michelangelo Antonioni Film Director, Screenwriter
Character

"I want my characters to suggest the background in themselves, even when it is not visible. I want them to be so powerfully realized that we cannot imagine them apart from their physical and social context even when we see them in empty space."

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Character

"There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters."

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Character

"A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees."

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Luke Wilson Actor
Character

"That's one of those things that will really hurt me personally, if I label a character or think about what it might do if it were to do well. I just try to do a good job with it."

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Kojo Annan Diplomat
Character

"My father is a man of impeccable character who has worked tirelessly for the United Nations for many years. His integrity is beyond reproach."

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Martin Starr Actor
Character

"I’m a nudist by trade and hobby. I grew up in LA and I’ve been fortunate enough to be doing this for a great deal of years; if someone is thinking of me as they’re writing something I take it as a huge compliment and hope that it’s an interesting character at least."

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E. M. Forster Novelist, Essayist
Character

"Our easiest approach to a definition of any aspect of fiction is always by considering the sort of demand it makes on the reader. Curiosity for the story, human feelings and a sense of value for the characters, intelligence and memory for the plot. What does fantasy ask of us? It asks us to pay something extra."

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Eckhart Tolle Spiritual Teacher, Author
Character

"The characters get challenged. Through getting challenged, the character arrives at insights or discovers potentials that he or she didn't know they had."

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