Character

"I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian, glad of mettle, a good boy."

"Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time: Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh, like parrots, at a bagpiper: And other of such vinegar aspect That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable."

"Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul."

"There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee."

"I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise, and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish."

"There is a kind of character in thy life, That to the observer doth thy history Fully unfold."

"With too much Quickness ever to be taught; With too much Thinking to have common Thought."

"What then remains, but well our power to use, And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose? And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail, When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail."

"When you start making a movie, you never know which will be the break out characters, the stars of the movie. That happened to us with Scrat (the saber toothed squirrel in Ice Age. We didn’t know that Scrat was going to be a superstar. Scrat doesn’t diminish the central Ice Age characters, Manny, Sid and Diego."

"Though I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous."

"O, he sits high in all the people's hearts: And that which would appear offence in us. His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness."

"Thou art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd! Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon."

"What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win."

"I grant him bloody, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name."

"Any character, from the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to the most enlightened, may be given to any community, even to the world at large, by applying certain means; which are to a great extent at the command and under the controul, or easily made so, of those who possess the government of nations."

"'Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn; A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn: A Judge is just, a Chanc'llor juster still; A Gownman learn'd; a Bishop what you will; Wise if a minister; but if a King, More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'rything."

"From loveless youth to unrespected age, No passion gratified, except her rage, So much the fury still outran the wit, That pleasure miss'd her, and the scandal hit."

"In men we various ruling passions find; In women two almost divide the kind; Those only fixed, they first or last obey, The love of pleasure, and the love of sway."

"Our character is our spiritual constitution. It is not made for us, as the Owenites said: it is daily being made and modified by us, by means of our daily human acts. Countless tiny shellfish build up a coral-reef, or a chalk cliff; and countless acts make in time a character. Little acts come and go unnoticed; the result endures; and in the end we are surprised at its magnitude and permanence. Our daily acts, then, must be well done, excellently well done, at least with such excellence as is within our reach."

"If I am not better, at least I am different."

"I know him a notorious liar, Think him a great way fool, solely a coward; Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him, That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Look bleak i' the cold wind."

"He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere, Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere; Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind, Stigmatical in making, worse in mind."

"What a frosty-spirited rogue is this!"

"This bold bad man."

"Though equal to all things, for all things unfit; Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit."

"We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it much. People that do not laugh or cry, or take more of anything than is good for them, or use anything but dictionary-words, are admirable subjects for biographies. But we don't care most for those flat pattern flowers that press best in the herbarium."

"Whatever comes from the brain carries the hue of the place it came from, and whatever comes from the heart carries the heat and color of its birthplace."

"If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons."

"A very unclubable man."

"No doubt the reason is that character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."

"If you wish to know someone, you need only observe that on which he bestows his care, and what sides of his own nature he cultivates."

"Those about whom you inquire have moulded with their bones into dust. Nothing but their words remain. When the hour of the great man has struck he rises to leadership; but before his time has come he is hampered in all that he attempts. I have heard that the successful merchant carefully conceals his wealth, and acts as though he had nothing—that the great man, though abounding in achievements, is simple in his manners and appearance. Get rid of your pride and your many ambitions, your affectation and your extravagant aims. Your character gains nothing for all these. This is my advice to you."

"A tender heart; a will inflexible."

"So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good, So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure."

"Sensitive, swift to resent, but as swift in atoning for error."

"In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer."

"We hardly know any instance of the strength and weakness of human nature so striking and so grotesque as the character of this haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stocking, half Mithridates and half Trissotin, bearing up against a world in arms, with an ounce of poison in one pocket and a quire of bad verses in the other."

"And the chief-justice was rich, quiet, and infamous."

"Our character is our will; for what we will we are."

"Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is—more knave than fool."

"He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon."

"Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate the event, my nature is That I incline to hope rather than fear, And gladly banish squint suspicion."

"Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, Nods and Becks and wreathèd Smiles."

"Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved."

"Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."

"For contemplation he and valor formed, For softness she and sweet attractive grace."

"Adam the goodliest man of men since born His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve."

"Her virtue and the conscience of her worth, That would be wooed, and not unsought be won."

"Character is what you are in the dark."

"When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast."