Fate is character. [ William Winter ]
No talent, but yet a character. [ Heine ]
Character is victory organised. [ Napoleon ]
Character makes its own destiny. [ Mrs. Campbell Praed ]
Nothing endures but personal qualities. [ Walt Whitman ]
I'm called away by particular business.
But I leave my character behind me. [ Sheridan ]
Character is a perfectly educated will. [ Novalis ]
Man shows his character best in trifles. [ Schopenhauer ]
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to the observer doth thy history
Fully unfold. [ William Shakespeare ]
The history of a man is in his character. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
Human improvement is from within outwards. [ Froude ]
Character is very much a matter of health. [ Bovee ]
The man that makes a character makes foes. [ Young ]
A character is a completely-fashioned will. [ Novalis ]
It is not easy to repair a damaged character. [ Proverb ]
A good name is better than precious ointment. [ Eccles. vii. 1 ]
As your enemies and your friends, so are you. [ Lavater ]
You must look into people as well as at them. [ Chesterfield ]
Not in the clamor of the crowded street.
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. [ Longfellow ]
Happiness is not the end of life; character is. [ Henry Ward Beecher ]
Character must be kept bright as well as clean. [ Chesterfield ]
Love, hope, fear, faith — these make humanity;
These are its sign and note and character. [ Robert Browning ]
Character teaches over our head, above our wills. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
A woman in love is a very poor judge of character. [ Josiah Gilbert Holland (pseudonym Timothy Titcomb) ]
Softness of smile indicates softness of character. [ Lavater ]
The great hope of society is individual character. [ Channing ]
In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
Character is a thing that will take care of itself. [ Josiah Gilbert Holland (pseudonym Timothy Titcomb) ]
Our character is our will; for what we will we are. [ Archbishop Manning ]
Character lives in a man, reputation outside of him. [ J. G. Holland, Pseudonym: Timothy Titcomb ]
He who has no character is not a man: he is a thing. [ Chamfort ]
Character is impulse reined down into steady continuance. [ C. H. Parkhurst ]
The noblest character is stained by the addition of pride. [ Claudianus ]
Men will do more to support a character than to raise one. [ Colton ]
Character is the diamond that scratches every other stone. [ C. A. Bartol ]
The real character of a man is found out by his amusements. [ Sir Joshua Reynolds ]
The character of the common people changes in a single day. [ Voltaire ]
Every one is as God made him, and often a great deal worse. [ Cervantes ]
Conversation is the vent of character as well as of thought. [ Emerson ]
No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. [ Emerson ]
Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance. [ Shenstone ]
Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles. [ Hume ]
Character is centrality, the impossibility of being overthrown. [ Emerson ]
Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time. [ A. Bronson Alcott ]
The way in which we form our ideas gives character to our minds. [ Rousseau ]
Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended. [ Rochefoucauld ]
Variety is a positive requisite even in the character of our food. [ Ruskin ]
A woman's character is as delicate as her eye; it can bear no flaw. [ G. A. Sala ]
Character is what Nature has engraven on us; can we then efface it? [ Voltaire ]
The true character of epistolary style is playfulness and urbanity. [ Joubert ]
We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others. [ Rochefoucauld ]
No single action creates, however it may exhibit, a man's character. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
The fine tints and fluent curves which constitute beauty of character. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
The real object of the drama is the exhibition of the human character. [ Macaulay ]
Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth. [ Daniel Webster ]
Courage is, on all hands, considered as an essential of high character. [ Froude ]
Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the building up of character. [ Tupper ]
Character is moral order seen through the medium of an individual nature. [ Emerson ]
Character is centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or overset. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Characters never change. Opinions alter, - characters are only developed. [ Disraeli ]
How glorious a character appears when it is penetrated with mind and soul. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
A talent is perfected in solitude: a character in the stream of the world. [ Goethe ]
Activity is the presence of function. Character is the record of function. [ Greenough ]
Character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and grey hairs. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called weakest. [ Mme. de Staël ]
Character is a fact, and that is much in a world of pretence and concession. [ A. B. Alcott ]
Talent forms itself in secret; character, in the great current of the world. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
The character of false wit is that of appearing; to depend only upon reason. [ Vauvenargues ]
The most careful reasoning characters are very often the most easily abashed. [ Mme. de Stael ]
Nothing is more significant of men's character than what they find laughable. [ Goethe ]
Individuality is everywhere to be guarded and honored as the root of all good. [ Jean Paul Richter ]
The love for our native land strengthens our individual and national character. [ Alexander Hamilton ]
The very difference of character in marriage produces a harmonious combination. [ Washington Irving ]
The manner of giving shows the character of the giver more than the gift itself. [ Lavater ]
Character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence and without means. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good. [ Lavater ]
Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell Character. [ J. C. Lavater ]
Actions, looks, words, steps from the alphabet by which you may spell characters. [ Lavater ]
In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker. [ Plutarch ]
How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seed-time of character? [ Thoreau ]
It requires less character to discover the faults of others than to tolerate them. [ J. Petit-Senn ]
Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us. [ Humboldt ]
You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself one. [ Henry D. Thoreau ]
Many persons carry about their character in their hands, not a few under their feet. [ Murillo ]
The hammer and the anvil are the two hemispheres of every true reformer's character. [ J. G. Holland ]
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character. [ Lowell ]
Copiousness and simplicity, variety and unity, constitute real greatness of character. [ Lavater ]
Study carefully the character of him you recommend, lest his misdeeds bring you shame. [ Horace ]
The higher character a person supports, the more he should regard his minutest actions. [ Not traceable ]
Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world. [ Goethe ]
Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself. [ Cicero ]
Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence. [ Richter ]
The power of faith will often shine forth the most when the character is naturally weak. [ Hare ]
Be your character what it will, it will be known, and nobody will take it upon your word. [ Lord Chesterfield ]
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us. [ Thomas Paine ]
We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us. [ Mme. Swetchine ]
It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. [ Lowell ]
The most striking characters are sometimes the product of an infinity of little accidents. [ Danton ]
It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. [ Goethe ]
All men are like in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ. [ Bovee ]
It is of very little use in trying to be dignified, if dignity is no part of your character. [ Bovee ]
Circumstances form the character; but, like petrifying matters, they harden while they form. [ Landor ]
Let the character as it began be preserved to the last; and let it be consistent with itself. [ Horace ]
The joy of heaven will begin as soon as we attain the character of heaven, and do its duties. [ Theodore Parker ]
Who partakes in another's joys is a more humane character than he who partakes in his griefs. [ Lavater ]
Features betray the temperament and character, but the mien indicates the degrees of fortune. [ La Bruyere ]
Style seems to depend on three things:
1. a mental attitude and character,
2. a familiarity with the best authors,
3. dexterity in the use of words, acquired by constant practice.
So we must learn to speak by speaking, as we learn to walk by walking, or to dance by dancing. [ John Stuart Blackie, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]
We never know a great character until something congenial to it has grown up within ourselves. [ William Ellery Channing ]
Neatness, and its reverse, among the poor, are almost a certain test of their moral character. [ Dr. Whitaker ]
The most brilliant qualities become useless when they are not sustained by force of character. [ Segur ]
It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. [ Swift ]
He is truly great that is little in himself, and that maketh no account of any height of honors. [ Thomas a Kempis ]
Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another. [ Richter ]
In the common run of mankind, for one that is wise and good you find ten of a contrary character. [ Addison ]
Simplicity in character, in manners, in style: in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity. [ Longfellow ]
I have learned by experience that no man's character can be eventually injured but by his own acts. [ Rowland Hill ]
When you have discovered a stain in yourself, you eagerly seek for and gladly find stains in others. [ Auerbach ]
Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
The true greatness of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual. [ Charles Sumner ]
Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to reestablish our character. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
Learn now of the treachery of the Greeks, and from one example the character of the nation may be known. [ Virgil ]
Our character is but the stamp on our souls of the free choice of good or evil we have made through life. [ J. C. Geikie ]
Men and brethren, a simple trust in God is the most essential ingredient in moral sublimity of character. [ Richard Fuller ]
A single bad habit will mar an otherwise faultless character, as an ink-drop soileth the pure white page. [ H. Ballou ]
The most cursory observation shows that a degree of reserve adds vastly to the latent force of character. [ Tuckerman ]
Certain trifling flaws sit as disgracefully on a character of elegance as a ragged button on a court dress. [ Lavater ]
We are not that we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for that we are capable of being. [ Thoreau ]
Every man has three characters - that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has. [ Alphonse Karr ]
There is nothing more allied to the barbarous and savage character than sullenness, concealment, and reserve. [ Parke Godwin ]
Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees. [ Johnson ]
Friendship requires a steady, constant, and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his intimacy. [ Plutarch ]
To be careless of what others think of us, not only indicates an arrogant, but an utterly abandoned character. [ Cicero ]
Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered character. Happy is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul. [ Sir J. Stevens ]
Character, like porcelain ware, must be printed before it is glazed. There can be no change after it is burned in. [ Beecher ]
It is by no means improbable that the national character of human societies may be modified by their favorite diet. [ Chatfield ]
There are peculiar ways in men, which discover what they are, through the most subtle feints and closest disguises. [ La Bruyere ]
Everything that happens to us leaves some trace behind; everything contributes imperceptibly to make us what we are. [ Goethe ]
Give me the character and I will forecast the event. Character, it has in substance been said, is victory organized.
[ Bovee ]
He whose life seems fair, if all his errors and follies were articled against him, would seem vicious and miserable. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
Sincerity is impossible unless it pervades the whole being; and the pretence saps the very foundations of character. [ Lowell ]
Individual character is in the right that is in strict consistence with itself. Self-contradiction is the only wrong. [ Schiller ]
It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension. [ Plutarch ]
To judge human character rightly, a man may sometimes have very small experience, provided he has a very large heart. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
In analyzing the character of heroes. It is hardly possible to separate altogether the share of fortune from their own. [ Hallam ]
What we like determines what we are and is the sign of what we are; and to teach taste is inevitably to form character. [ Ruskin ]
In all our reasonings concerning men, we must lay it down as a maxim that the greater part are moulded by circumstances. [ Robert Hall ]
Of all the evils of the world which are reproached with an evil character, death is the most innocent of its accusation. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature but what he was forced to ascribe it to many inconsistencies. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
The despotism of will in ideas is styled plan, project, character, obstinacy: its despotism in desires is called passion. [ Rivarol ]
What are you worth today? Not in money, but in brains, heart, purpose, character? Tell yourself the truth about yourself. [ George H. Hepworth ]
The character of a woman rapidly develops after marriage, and sometimes seems to change, when in fact it is only complete. [ Beaconsfield ]
Character shows itself apart from genius as a special thing. The first point of measurement of any man is that of quality. [ T. W. Higginson ]
Every man is an original and solitary character. None can either understand or feel the book of his own life like himself. [ Cecil ]
Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. [ Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ]
Nothing reveals character more than self-sacrifice. So the highest knowledge we have of God is through the gift of His Son. [ William Harris ]
Our estimate of a character always depends much on the manner in which that character affects our own interests and passions. [ Macaulay ]
It is the habit of party in England to ask the alliance of a man of genius, but to follow the guidance of a man of character. [ Lord John Russell ]
Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which is never advisable. [ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest ]
No artist-work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child. [ Charlotte Cushman ]
Travel gives a character of experience to our knowledge, and brings the figures upon the tablet of memory into strong relief. [ Tuckerman ]
A good character when established should not be rested in as an end, but only employed as a means of doing still further good. [ Atterbury ]
The character wherewith we sink into the grave at death is the very character wherewith we shall reappear at the resurrection. [ Thomas Chalmers ]
What a person praises is perhaps a surer standard, even than what he condemns, of his own character, information and abilities. [ Hare ]
Character is made up of small duties faithfully performed - of self-denials, of self-sacrifices, of kindly acts of love and duty. [ Anonymous ]
To be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false, - this is the mark and character of intelligence. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Something of a person's character may be discovered by observing when and how he smiles. Some people never smile; they merely grin. [ Bovee ]
There are moments of intense joy and grief, which every one has, at least, once in his life, that illuminate his character at once. [ Lavater ]
The taste of beauty and the relish of what is decent, just, and amiable perfects the character of the gentleman and the philosopher. [ Shaftesbury ]
Those who relish the study of character may profit by the reading of good works of fiction, the product of well established authors. [ Whately ]
Fine natures are like fine poems; a glance at the first two lines suffices for a guess into the beauty that waits you if you read on. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
It is the height of folly to throw up attempting because you have failed. Failures are wonderful elements in developing the character. [ Anon ]
As the present character of a man, so his past, so his future. Who recollects distinctly his past adventures knows his destiny to come. [ Lavater ]
One of the first observations to make in conversation is the state, or the character, and the education of the person to whom we speak. [ Madame Necker ]
Character wants room; must not be crowded on by persons, nor be judged of from glimpses got in the press of affairs or a few occasions. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
No character was ever rightly understood until it had been first regarded with a certain feeling, not of tolerance only, but of sympathy. [ Carlyle ]
A man of intellect is lost unless he unites energy of character to intellect. When we have the lantern of Diogenes we must have his staff. [ Chamfort ]
The reason why the character of woman is so often misunderstood, is that it is the beautiful nature of woman to veil her soul as her charms. [ F. Schlegel ]
Those with whom we can apparently become well acquainted in a few moments are generally the most difficult to rightly know and to understand. [ Hawthorne ]
There has never been a great or beautiful character which has not become so by filling well the ordinary and smaller offices appointed by God. [ Horace Bushnell ]
Conflict, which rouses up the best and highest powers in some characters, in others not only jars the whole being, but paralyzes the faculties. [ Mrs. Jameson ]
As a man's yes and no, so his character. A prompt yes or no marks the firm, the quick, the decided character; and a slow, the cautious or timid. [ Lavater ]
It was in his own home that Fielding knew and loved her (Amelia); from his own wife that he drew the most charming character in English fiction. [ Thackeray ]
Friendship and love require the deepest and most entire confidence, but souls of a high character demand not communications of a familiar nature. [ Humboldt ]
Dignity of position adds to dignity of character, as well as to dignity of carriage. Give us a proud position, and we are impelled to act up to it. [ Bovee ]
Nothing, or almost nothing, is certain to me, except the Divine Infernal character of this universe I live in, worthy of horror, worthy of worship. [ Carlyle ]
Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the character of the age. [ Burke ]
Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter. [ Paxton Hood ]
I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain, what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
[ George Washington ]
It is in periods of apparent disaster, during the sufferings of whole generations, that the greatest improvement in human character has been effected. [ Sir A. Alison ]
There never did and never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in a character which was a stranger to the exercise of resolute self-denial. [ Scott ]
Luck is ever waiting for something to turn up. Labour, with keen eyes and strong will, will turn up something. Luck relies on chance, labour on character. [ Cobden ]
The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it. [ George Washington ]
To be able simply to say of a man he has character, is not only saying much of him, but extolling him; for this is a rarity which excites respect and wonder. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
The diamond of character is revealed by the concussion of misfortune, as the splendor of the precious jewel of the mine is developed by the blows of the lapidary. [ F. A. Durivage ]
Life, whether in this world or any other, is the sum of our attainment, our experience, our character. In what other world shall we be more surely than we are here? [ Chapin ]
Susceptibility to one class of influences, the selection of what is fit for him, the rejection of what is unfit, determines for a man the character of the universe. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are three things that never stand still. [ Colton ]
Character is the spiritual body of the person, and represents the individualisation of vital experience, the conversion of unconscious things into self-conscious men. [ Whipple ]
The law of the harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny. [ G. D. Boardman ]
Occasionally a single anecdote opens a character: biography has its comparative anatomy, and a saying or a sentiment enables the skilful hand to construct the skeleton. [ Willmott ]
Firmness, both in sufferance and exertion, is a character I would wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and the cowardly feeble resolve. [ Burns ]
Many men build as cathedrals were built, - the part nearest the ground finished, but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete. [ Beecher ]
God gives the mind, man makes the character. The mind is the garden, the character is the fruit; the mind is the white page, the character is the writing we put upon it. [ George S. Weaver ]
Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul; that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love; and this may be found in the humblest condition of life. [ William Ellery Channing ]
When a man puts on a character he is a stranger to, there is as much difference between what he appears and what he is in reality as there is between a visor and a face. [ Bruyere ]
Great ambition is the passion of a great character. He who is endowed with it may perform very good or very bad actions; all depends upon the principles which direct him. [ Napoleon ]
Mirth is a Proteus, changing its shape and manner with the thousand diversities of individual character, from the most superfluous gayety to the deepest, most earnest humor. [ E. P. Whipple ]
As what we call genius arises out of the disproportionate power and size of a certain faculty, so the great difficulty lies in harmonizing with it the rest of the character. [ Mrs. Jameson ]
A grave aspect to a grave character is of much more consequence than the world is generally aware of; a barber may make you laugh, but a surgeon ought rather to make you cry. [ Fielding ]
Hypocrisy of manners, a vice peculiar to modern nations, has contributed more than one thinks to destroy that energy of character which distinguished the nations of antiquity. [ Condorcet ]
The difference there is betwixt honor and honesty seems to be chiefly the motive; the mere honest man does that from duty which the man of honor does for the sake of character. [ Shenstone ]
Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearing of little children tends toward the formation of character. Let parents bear this ever in mind. [ Hosea Ballou ]
Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant of both the character they leave and of the character they assume. [ Burke ]
Exaggeration, as to rhetoric, is using a vast force to lift a feather;
as to morals and character, it is using falsehood to lift one's self out of the confidence of his fellow-men. [ Hugo Amot ]
The character of covetousness is what a man generally acquires more through some niggardliness or ill grace in little and inconsiderable things, than in expenses of any consequence. [ Pope ]
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind. [ Daniel Webster ]
National character varies as it fades under invasion or corruption; but if ever it glows again into a new life, that life must be tempered by the earth and sky of the country itself. [ John Ruskin ]
A nation's character is the sum of its splendid deeds; they constitute one common patrimony, the nation's inheritance. They awe foreign powers; they arouse and animate our own people. [ Henry Clay ]
What the tender and poetic youth dreams today, and conjures up with inarticulate speech, is tomorrow the vociferated result of public opinion, and the day after is the character of nations. [ Emerson ]
As diamond cuts diamond, and one hone smooths a second, all the parts of intellect are whetstones to each other; and genius, which is but the result of their mutual sharpening, is character, too. [ C. A. Bartol ]
The petty cares, the minute anxieties, the infinite littles which go to make up the sum of human experience, like the invisible granules of powder, give the last and highest polish to a character. [ William Matthews ]
Faith in the hereafter is as necessary for the intellectual as the moral character; and to the man of letters, as well as to the Christian, the present forms but the slightest portion of his existence. [ Southey ]
The style of an author is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
A thorough miser must possess considerable strength of character to bear the self-denial imposed by his penuriousness. Equal sacrifices, endured voluntarily in a better cause, would make a saint or a martyr. [ W. B. Clulow ]
Fiction is no longer a mere amusement; but transcendent genius, accommodating itself to the character of the age, has seized upon this province of literature, and turned fiction from a toy into a mighty engine. [ Channing ]
It is in the relaxation of security, it is in the expansion of prosperity, it is in the hour of dilation of the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure that the real character of men is discerned. [ Burke ]
What a person praises is perhaps a surer standard, even, than what he condemns, of his character, information, and abilities. No wonder, then, that in this prudent country most people are so shy of praising anything. [ Hare ]
It is no proof of a man's understanding to be able to confirm whatever he pleases; but to be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false, this is the mark and character of intelligence. [ Swedenborg ]
A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words. Character is like bells which ring out sweet music, and which, when touched accidentally even, resound with sweet music. [ Phillips Brooks ]
Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
It is only an error of judgment to make a mistake, but it argues an infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered. Or, as the Chinese better say, The glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.
[ Bovee ]
Gallantry, though a fashionable crime, is a very detestable one; and the wretch who pilfers from us in the hour of distress is an innocent character compared to the plunderer who wantonly robs us of happiness and reputation. [ Rev. H. Kelley ]
Virgil has very finely touched upon the female passion for dress and shows, in the character of Camilla; who, though she seems to have shaken off all the other weaknesses of her sex, is still described as a woman in this particular. [ Addison ]
We cannot approach beauty. Its nature is like opaline dove's-neck lustres, hovering and evanescent. Herein it resembles the most excellent things, which have all this rainbow character, defying all attempts at appropriation and use. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
A taste for flowers and a love for the beautiful, as exhibited in the wonders of creative power, are evidences of a refined and sensitive nature, and peculiar traits of character which distinguish man from the lower order of animals. [ Celestia R. Colby ]
Grief or misfortune seems to be indispensable to the development of intelligence, energy, and virtue. The proofs to which the people are submitted, as with individuals, are necessary then to draw them from their lethargy, to disclose their character. [ Fearon ]
We love a girl for very different qualities than understanding. We love her for her beauty, her youth, her mirth, her confidingness, her character, with its faults, caprices and God knows what other inexpressible charms; but we do not love her understanding. [ Goethe ]
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character. [ Sir Walter Scott ]
There is a gentle, but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit of reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man's character and conduct, which is not the less effectual because it works insensibly, and because it is really the last thing he dreams of. [ Sir John Herschel ]
The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace only excel other writers by their expressions and images: we must indicate what is true if we mean to write naturally, forcibly and delicately. [ La Bruyere ]
Conscience is doubtless sufficient to conduct the coldest character into the road of virtue; but enthusiasm is to conscience what honor is to duty; there is in us a superfluity of soul, which it is sweet to consecrate to the beautiful when the good has been accomplished. [ Mme. de Stael ]
How idle a boast, after all, is the immortality of a name! Time is ever silently turning over his pages; we are too much engrossed by the story of the present to think of the character and anecdotes that gave interest to the past; and each age is a volume thrown aside and forgotten. [ Washington Irving ]
No one was ever the better for advice: in general, what we called giving advice was properly taking an occasion to show our own wisdom at another's expense; and to receive advice was little better than tamely to afford another the occasion of raising himself a character from our defects. [ Lord Shaftesbury ]
Taking our stand on the immovable rock of Christ's character we risk nothing in saying that the wine of miracle answered to the wine of nature, and was not intoxicating. No counterproof can equal the force of that drawn from His attributes. It is an indecency and a calumny to impute to Christ conduct which requires apology. [ Abraham Coles ]
Every common dauber writes rascal and villain under his pictures, because the pictures themselves have neither character nor resemblance. But the works of a master require no index. His features and coloring are taken from nature. The impression they make is immediate and uniform; nor is it possible to mistake his characters. [ Junius ]
The press, important as is its office, is but the servant of the human intellect, and its ministry is for good or for evil, according to the character of those who direct it. The press is a mill which grinds all that is put into its hopper. Fill the hopper with poisoned grain, and it will grind it to meal, but there is death in the bread. [ Bryant ]
Whatever strengthens our local attachments is favorable both to individual and national character, our home, our birthplace, our native land. Think for a while what the virtues are which arise out of the feelings connected with these words, and if you have any intellectual eyes, you will then perceive the connection between topography and patriotism. [ Southey ]
It is very singular, how the fact of a man's death often seems to give people a truer idea of his character, whether for good or evil, than they have ever possessed while he was living and acting among them. Death is so genuine a fact that it excludes falsehood or betray its emptiness; it is a touchstone that proves the gold, and dishonors the baser metal. [ Hawthorne ]
Luck is ever waiting for something to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and strong will, will turn up something. Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him the news of a legacy. Labor turns out at six o'clock, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines. Labor whistles. Luck relies on chance. Labor on character. [ Cobden ]
Wealth brings noble opportunities, and competence is a proper object of pursuit; but wealth, and even competence, may be bought at too high a price. Wealth itself has no moral attribute. It is not money, but the love of money, which is the root of all evil. It is the relation between wealth and the mind and the character of its possessor which is the essential thing. [ Hillard ]
Living authors, therefore, are usually bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen - for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well. [ Colton ]
Weakness can never be beautiful, either morally or physically: and though the feminine type may possess greater softness and more feeling, it must be active, firm, and healthy, or it cannot be beautiful; the weak mind, distracted by alternations of feeling, and constant craving for help and sympathy from others, cannot at the same time possess that tenderness and unselfish devotion which is the loveliest trait of the female character. [ M. Martell ]
The mother, under whose sole influence the child is for years, from whom it acquires its tastes and character, should not only be educated, but educated in the most thorough manner, and have her mind stored with varied learning, so that she may be able to answer the multitude of questions that will be put to her by her inquisitive child on art, science, literature, and religion, and thus to stimulate his curiosity, and awaken his mind. [ E. B. Ramsay ]
Business is religion, and religion is business. The man who does not make a business of his religion has a religious life of no force, and the man who does not make a religion of his business has a business life of no character.
The world is God's workshop; the raw materials are His; the ideals and patterns are His; our hands are "the members of Christ," our reward His recognition. Blacksmith or banker, draughtsman or doctor, painter or preacher, servant or statesman, must work as unto the Lord, not merely making a living, but devoting a life. This makes life sacramental, turning its water into wine. This is twice blessed, blessing both the worker and the work. [ Maltbie Babcock ]
Good taste is essentially a moral quality. Taste is not only a part and an index of morality — it is the only morality. The first, last, and closest trial question to any living creature is, What do you like?
- and the entire object of true education is to make people not merely do right things, but enjoy the right things. What we like determines what we are, and is the sign of what we are; and to teach taste is inevitably to form character. [ Ruskin ]
Legitimately produced, and truly inspired, fiction interprets humanity, informs the understanding, and quickens the affections. It reflects ourselves, warns us against prevailing social follies, adds rich specimens to our cabinets of character, dramatizes life for the unimaginative, daguerreotypes it for the unobservant, multiplies experience for the isolated or inactive, and cheers age, retirement and invalidism with an available and harmless solace. [ Tuckerman ]
Rare almost as great poets, rarer, perhaps, than veritable saints and martyrs, are consummate men of business. A man, to be excellent in this way, requires a great knowledge of character, with that exquisite tact which feels unerringly the right moment when to act. A discreet rapidity must pervade all the movements of his thought and action. He must be singularly free from vanity, and is generally found to be an enthusiast who has the art to conceal his enthusiasm. [ Helps ]
Throughout the pages of history we are struck with the fact that our remarkable men possessed mothers of uncommon talents for good or bad, and great energy of character; it would almost seem from this circumstance, that the impress of the mother is more frequently stamped on the boy, and that of the father upon the girl - we mean the mental intellectual impress, in distinction from the physical ones. Mothers will do well to remember that their impress is often stamped upon their sons. [ Helen Mar ]
No process is so fatal as that which would cast all men in one mould. Every human being is intended to have a character of his own, to be what no other is, to do what no other can do. Our common nature is to be unfolded in unbounded diversities. It is rich enough for infinite manifestations. It is to wear innumerable forms of beauty and glory. Every human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influences to exert, which are peculiarly his, and which no conscience but his own can teach. [ Channing ]
A newspaper, like a theatre, must mainly owe its continuance in life to the fact that it pleases many persons; and in order to please many persons it will, unconsciously perhaps, respond to their several tastes, reflect their various qualities, and reproduce their views. In a certain sense it is evolved out of the community that absorbs it, and, therefore, partaking of the character of the community, while it may retain many merits and virtues, it will display itself, as in some respects ignorant, trivial, narrow, and vulgar. [ William Winter ]
True hope is based on energy of character. A strong mind always hopes, and has always cause to hope, because it knows the mutability of human affairs and how slight a circumstance may change the whole course of events. Such a spirit, too, rests upon itself, it is not confined to partial views, or to one particular object. And if at last all should be lost, it has saved itself, its own integrity and worth. Hope awakens courage, while despondency is the last of all evils, it is the abandonment of good, the giving up of the battle of life with dead nothingness. He who can implant courage in the human soul is the best physician. [ Von Knebel (German), Translated by Mrs. Austin ]
Morals are an acquirement - like music, like a foreign language, like piety, poker, paralysis - no man is born with them. I wasn't myself, I started poor. I hadn't a single moral. There is hardly a man in this house that is poorer than I was then. Yes, I started like that - the world before me, not a moral in the slot. Not even an insurance moral. I can remember the first one I ever got. I can remember the landscape, the weather, the - I can remember how everything looked. It was an old moral, an old second-hand moral, all out of repair, and didn't fit, anyway. But if you are careful with a thing like that, and keep it in a dry place, and save it for processions, and Chautauquas, and World's Fairs, and so on, and disinfect it now and then, and give it a fresh coat of whitewash once in a while, you will be surprised to see how well she will last and how long she will keep sweet, or at least inoffensive. When I got that mouldy old moral, she had stopped growing, because she hadn't any exercise; but I worked her hard, I worked her Sundays and all. Under this cultivation she waxed in might and stature beyond belief, and served me well and was my pride and joy for sixty-three years; then she got to associating with insurance presidents, and lost flesh and character, and was a sorrow to look at and no longer competent for business. She was a great loss to me. Yet not all loss. I sold her - ah, pathetic skeleton, as she was - I sold her to Leopold, the pirate King of Belgium; he sold her to our Metropolitan Museum, and it was very glad to get her, for without a rag on, she stands 57 feet long and 16 feet high, and they think she's a brontosaur. Well, she looks it. They believe it will take nineteen geological periods to breed her match. [ Mark Twain, Seventieth Birthday speech ]