Character Quotes

• "So much his courage and his mercy strive, He wounds to cure, and conquers to forgive."
  By: Matthew Prior, Ode in Imitation of Horace (bk. III, ode II)
  Character Quotes
• "No man's defects sought they to know; So never made themselves a foe. No man's good deeds did they commend; So never rais'd themselves a friend."
  By: Matthew Prior, Epitaph
  Character Quotes
• "Character makes its own destiny."
  By: Mrs. Campbell Praed (Rose Caroline Praed)
  Character Quotes
• "Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul."
  By: Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock (canto V, l. 34)
  Character Quotes
• "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."
  By: Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock (canto V, l. 29)
  Character Quotes
• "Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust, Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust."
  By: Alexander Pope, Prologue to Satires (l. 332)
  Character Quotes
• "With too much Quickness ever to be taught; With too much Thinking to have common Thought."
  By: Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (ep. II, l. 97)
  Character Quotes
• "In men, we various ruling passions find; In women two almost divide the kind; Those only fix'd, they first or last obey. The love of pleasure, and the love of sway."
  By: Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (ep. II, l. 207)
  Character Quotes
• "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."
  By: Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (ep. II, l. 125)
  Character Quotes
• "'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 Gowman 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."
  By: Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (ep. I, pt. II)
  Character Quotes
• "Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a Man: Simplicity, a child."
  By: Alexander Pope, Epitaph XI
  Character Quotes
• "Good-humor only teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests and maintains the past."
  By: Alexander Pope, Epistle to Miss Blount--With the Works of Voiture
  Character Quotes
• "That character in conversation which commonly passes for agreeable is made up of civility and falsehood."
  By: Alexander Pope
  Character Quotes
• "A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead."
  By: Alexander Pope
  Character Quotes
• "The highest of characters, in my estimation, is his, who is as ready to pardon the moral errors of mankind, as if he were every day guilty of some himself; and at the same time as cautious of committing a fault as if he never forgave one. [Lat., Optimum et emendatissimum existimo, qui ceteris ita ignoscit, tanquam ipse quotidie peccet; ita peccatis abstinet, tanquam nemini ignoscat.]"
  By: Pliny the Younger (Caius Caecilius Secundus), Epistles (VIII, 22)
  Character Quotes
• "Brains and character rule the world. The most distinguished Frenchman of the last century said: "Men succeed less by their talents than their character." There were scores of men a hundred years ago who had more intellect than Washington. He outlives and overrides them all by the influence of his character."
  By: Wendell Phillips
  Character Quotes