Character quotes
14.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside character — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"I think when your image becomes so big that it's hard for a viewer to see a character, then I think you're in danger as an actor of being unable to perform what you should be doing."
"Because the writer must be a participant in the scene, while he's writing it — or at least taping it, or even sketching it. Or all three. Probably the closest analogy to the ideal would be a film director/producer who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least a main character."
"But our trip was different. It was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character. It was a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country-but only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that."
"Nixon represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise."
"The most direct and enduring way to reach the mind and imagination of the learner is through the mind, imagination and character of the outstanding teacher."
"Can you feel that there is something in you that is at war, something that feels threatened and wants to survive at all cost, that needs the drama in order to assert its identity as the victorious character within that theatrical production? Can you feel there is something in you that would rather be right than at peace?"
"I think that Brighton, for a crime writer, is almost like a character."
"Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men."
"The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support."
"Let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty."
"In the tale proper--where there is no space for development of character or for great profusion and variety of incident--mere construction is, of course, far more imperatively demanded than in the novel."
"He is, as you say, a remarkable horse, a prodigious horse, although as you very justly observe, a suspicious and untractable character."
"Little choices determine habit; Habit carves and molds character. Which makes the big decisions."
"A lot of times I feel like people come up to me because they think I'm like my character in Easy A, or because they've seen me in interviews, but really what they're a fan of is a movie or a character."
"courage is the gift of character"
"My character Lena is somebody who responds to people in a very simple way. I didn't have to take myself off to a darkened room to concentrate, I just had to try and be open. It's an interesting, subtle relationship."
"it is usually in better taste to praise an isolated action or a production of genius, than a man's character as a whole."
"To create a character who really interests you, try combining aspects of your favourite fictional character with a real person."
"It's impressive when you're such a mysterious fictional character that even avid enthusiasts are debating your existence within the mythos."
"My worst character flaw that I'm conscious of is that I tend to think my way into circles instead of resolving anything. It's paralyzing and boring for people around me."
