Quotes about character
Integrity, habit and who you are when nobody is looking. Quotes about character from moralists and memoirists.
The library has 749 quotes on this topic. Here are 60 of the most quoted, no more than four from any one writer.
60 quotes about character
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Know then this truth (enough for man to know),—“Virtue alone is happiness below.”
Alexander Pope Essay on Man. Epistle iv, Line 309 -
Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water.
William Shakespeare Henry VIII, Act iv. Sc. 2 -
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence.
William Shakespeare Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 3 -
Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Maxims and Reflections, Life and Character, No. 225 · translated by T. Bailey Saunders -
For my name and memory, I leave it to men’s charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages.
Francis Bacon From his Will -
The primal duties shine aloft, like stars; The charities that soothe and heal and bless Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers.
William Wordsworth The Excursion, Book ix -
The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
William Shakespeare Pericles, Act ii. Sc. 1 -
A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience.
William Shakespeare Henry VIII, Act iii. Sc. 2 -
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Alexander Pope Essay on Man. Epistle ii, Line 217 -
Good the more Communicated more abundant grows.
John Milton Paradise Lost -
Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man’s erring judgment, and misguide the mind; What the weak head with strongest bias rules,—Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Alexander Pope Essay on Criticism, Part ii. Line 1 -
Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue is at hand.
Confucius Analects, VII.29 · translated by James Legge -
Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Conduct of Life. Behaviour -
What maintains one vice, would bring up two children.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard’s Almanack -
Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!
William Wordsworth Ode to Duty -
Abashed the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is, and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely.
John Milton Paradise Lost, Bk. IV -
Satan now is wiser than of yore, And tempts by making rich, not making poor.
Alexander Pope -
So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can!
Ralph Waldo Emerson Voluntaries -
Plain living and high thinking are no more. The homely beauty of the good old cause Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence, And pure religion breathing household laws.
William Wordsworth O Friend! I know not which way I must look -
Safe from temptation, safe from sin’s pollution, She lives whom we call dead.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Resignation -
Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgment to do aught, which else free will Would not admit.
John Milton Paradise Lost, Bk. VIII -
A friend of yours and mine has very justly defined good breeding to be the result of much good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others, and with a view to obtain the same indulgence from them.
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Letters to His Son -
The man that makes a character makes foes.
Edward Young To Mr. Pope. Epistle i, Line 28 -
Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another.
Jean Paul -
Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.
Laurence Sterne Sermon xxvii -
A virtue is like a city set upon a hill—it cannot be hid. We can conceal our vices if we care to—for a time at least—but a virtue will out.
Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous Aphorisms -
Those who are without virtue cannot abide long either in a condition of poverty and hardship, or in a condition of enjoyment. The virtuous rest in virtue; the wise desire virtue.
Confucius Analects, IV.2 · translated by James Legge -
The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.
Confucius Analects, XIII.27 · translated by James Legge -
By nothing do men show their character more than by the things they laugh at.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Maxims and Reflections, Life and Character, No. 291 · translated by T. Bailey Saunders -
The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
Augustine of Hippo -
For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
William Congreve The Mourning Bride, Act v. Sc. 12 -
The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.
Confucius Analects, XV.8 · translated by James Legge -
Let no one forget his own duty for the sake of another’s, however great; let a man, after he has discerned his own duty, be always attentive to his duty.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 166 · translated by F. Max Müller -
All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.
Voltaire -
Generosity wins favour for every one, especially when it is accompanied by modesty.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Maxims and Reflections, Life and Character, No. 65 · translated by T. Bailey Saunders -
To fulfil a duty is still always to feel it as a debt, for it is never quite satisfying to oneself.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Maxims and Reflections, Life and Character, No. 38 · translated by T. Bailey Saunders -
I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, self.
Martin Luther -
And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin Is pride that apes humility.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Devil’s Thoughts -
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,—As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
John Dryden Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book xv. The Worship of Aesculapius, Line 155 Disputed attribution -
He is the best gentleman that is the son of his own deserts, and not the degenerated heir of another’s virtue.
Victor Hugo -
Comminutum cor (Saint Paul). This is the Christian character. Alba has named you, I know you no more (Corneille). That is the inhuman character. The human character is the opposite.
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 532 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
Vice is waste of life. Poverty, obedience, and celibacy are the canonical vices.
George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists -
Your word can never be as good as your bond, because your memory can never be as trustworthy as your honor.
George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists -
Self-denial is not a virtue: it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.
George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists -
Obedience simulates subordination as fear of the police simulates honesty.
George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists -
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company, and reflection must finish him.
John Locke -
Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy.
Benjamin Franklin The Way to Wealth -
The aperitive virtue of a key, the attractive virtue of a hook.
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 55 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
Francis Bacon Essays -
Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful.
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography -
Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain, and of humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause believers to affirm.
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 377 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
We do not sustain ourselves in virtue by our own strength, but by the balancing of two opposed vices, just as we remain upright amidst two contrary gales. Remove one of the vices, and we fall into the other.
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 359 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country, contentment in the house, clothes on the back, and vigor in the body.
Benjamin Franklin -
A black character, a womanish character, a stubborn character, bestial, childish, animal, stupid, counterfeit, scurrilous, fraudulent, tyrannical.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book IV.28 · translated by George Long -
The unremitting retention of simple and high sentiments in obscure duties is hardening the character to that temper which will work with honor, if need be, in the tumult or on the scaffold.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays: First Series -
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station.
Joseph Addison Cato, Act iv. Sc. 4 -
Man is man by virtue of willing, not by virtue of knowing and understanding; and as he is, so he sees.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Representative Men -
He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.
John Milton -
Pride is a vice which pride itself inclines every man to find in others and overlook in himself.
Samuel Johnson -
Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and angels know of us.
Thomas Paine