Character Quotes

• "What a mighty spirit in a narrow bosom. [Ger., Welch' hoher Geist in einer engen Brust.]"
  By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Torquato Tasso (II, 3, 199)
  Character Quotes
• "Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world. [Ger., Es bildet ein talent sich in der Stille, Sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der Welt.]"
  By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Torquato Tasso (I, 2, 66)
  Character Quotes
• "I can promise to be upright, but not to be without bias. [Ger., Aufrichtig zu sein kann ich versprechen; unparteiisch zu sein aber nicht.]"
  By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Spruche in Prosa (III)
  Character Quotes
• "What is the true test of character, unless it be its progressive development in the bustle and turmoil, in the action and reaction of daily life?"
  By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  Character Quotes
• "In society every man is taken for what he gives himself out to be; but he must give himself out to be something. Better to be slightly disagreeable than altogether insignificant."
  By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  Character Quotes
• "To be engaged in opposing wrong affords, under the conditions of our mental constitution, but a slender guarantee for being right."
  By: Rt. Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, Time and Place of Homer (introduction)
  Character Quotes
• "A man not perfect, but of heart So high, of such heroic rage, That even his hopes became a part Of earth's eternal heritage."
  By: Richard Watson Gilder, At the President's Grave, an epitaph for President Cleveland
  Character Quotes
• "That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, but nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank,-- Creation's blot, creation's blank."
  By: Thomas Gibbons, When Jesus Dwelt
  Character Quotes
• "In every deed of mischief, he [Andronicus Comnenus] had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute."
  By: Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (vol. IX, p. 94)
  Character Quotes
• "Our character is but the stamp on our souls of the free choice of good or evil we have made through life."
  By: John Cunningham Geikie
  Character Quotes
• "Men and brethren, a simple trust in God is the most essential ingredient in moral sublimity of character."
  By: Richard Fuller (1)
  Character Quotes
• "Every one of us, whatever our speculative opinions, knows better than he practices, and recognizes a better law than he obeys."
  By: James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects--On Progress (pt. II)
  Character Quotes
• "Our thoughts and our conduct are our own."
  By: James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects--Education
  Character Quotes
• "Human improvement is from within outwards."
  By: James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects--Divus Caesar
  Character Quotes
• "A man's character is like his shadow which sometimes follows, and sometimes precedes him, and which is occasionally longer, occasionally shorter than he is."
  By: French Quotations
  Character Quotes
• "Parents can only give good advice or put them [children] on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
  By: Anne Frank, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, entry of July 15, 1944
  Character Quotes