Top 100 Personal Character Quotes
#1. It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, "Were he living I would make him a king;" but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
#2. There is a natural disposition with us to judge an author's personal character by the character of his works. We find it difficult to understand the common antithesis of a good writer and a bad man.
Edwin Percy Whipple
#3. The character of a generation is moulded by personal character.
Brooke Westcott
#4. Of the influence of Mr. Mill's personal character on those who were his political associates, it is difficult to speak too warmly.
Millicent Fawcett
#5. I suppose I arrived at my charitable commitment largely through guilt. I recognized early on that my good fortune was not due to superior personal character or initiative so much as it was to dumb luck.
George Kaiser
#6. In war, three-quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter.
Napoleon Bonaparte
#7. Norman is a very up-close, personal, character drama and I'd like to do something more zoomed out, a little more pastoral, some sweeping epic. I'd like to try something different.
Andrew Bird
#8. The key to long-term success in life is your education and skills, your life experiences, and most of all, your personal character.
Robert T. Kiyosaki
#9. General Custer was a close observer and student of personal character.
Buffalo Bill
#10. I believe no amount of business school training or work experience can teach what is ultimately a matter of personal character. Businesses are not dishonest or greedy, people are. Thus, a business, successful or not, is merely a reflection of the character of its leadership.
S. Truett Cathy
#11. The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your personal character.
Grenville Kleiser
#12. You will never be able to truly step inside another person, to see the world as he sees it, until you develop the pure desire, the strength of personal character, and the positive Emotional Bank Account, as well as the empathetic listening skills to do it.
Stephen Covey
#13. This mode of electioneering suited neither my taste nor my principles. I thought it equally unsuitable to my personal character and to the station in which I am placed.
John Quincy Adams
#14. Marcus Aurelius appoints personal character and conscience the ultimate refuge of happiness-seekers: the only place where dreams of happiness, doomed to die childless and intestate anywhere else, are not bound to be frustrated.
Zygmunt Bauman
#15. Among those who are satisfactory in this respect it is desirable to have represented as great a diversity of intellectual tradition, social milieu and personal character as possible.
Talcott Parsons
#16. Every article on these islands has an almost personal character, which gives this simple life, where all art is unknown, something of the artistic beauty of medieval life.
John Millington Synge
#17. Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character ofthe speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.
Aristotle.
#18. My thing was always more character-driven comedies, not sketch comedy - not that there's not room for both or one isn't enjoyable, just my personal taste, I like movies that comedy comes from out of flaws of people, things that are uncomfortable, out of tragedy.
Vince Vaughn
#19. Embracing a life content with fewer possessions has modeled for them the important truths that personal belongings are not the key to happiness, that security is found in their character, and that the pursuit of happiness runs a different road than the pursuit of possessions.
Joshua Becker
#20. On the small scale, 'Ico,' I think, actually delivered a small new thing: holding a character's hand and really feeling like your job is to rescue this person, and establishing a personal connection.
Warren Spector
#21. Temptation yielded to is lust deified (My Utmost for His Highest, September 17 entry). Temptation comes in many forms, but it is always personal, uncannily tailor-made for our individual moral weakness, and it takes aim at God's character, seeking to ransack our faith.
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
#22. A person's work allows their character to form and provides a creative outlet for their inner world of imaginative thoughts and creative impulses. A person whom fails to find suitable work that allows their soul room to grow will quickly begin eroding into a withered and desiccated being.
Kilroy J. Oldster
#23. I think all writers are armchair psychologists to some degree or another, and I think a character's sexuality is fascinating. It's a great way to really get at the root of their identity, because it's such a personal thing.
Alan Ball
#24. There is a figure that links the personal and the collective shadow; it is the Trickster. Jung describes the Trickster as 'the summation of all the inferior traits of character in individuals'.
Christopher Perry
#25. My personal, metaphysical belief is Vedanta, which is that ultimately there is a singular consciousness. It's like a Hindu metaphysics, that basically we're all like characters in a play that consciousness is putting on to discover its own creative capacities.
Daniel Pinchbeck
#26. I don't really worry so much about image. I try to just live my own life, my personal life, to my own sense of morality. In terms of the kinds of characters that I play, well, they could be anything.
Kevin Bacon
#28. The time it takes to fall from the top of a mountain to the floor it shorter than what it takes to climb from the floor to the top. Only leaders with character can maintain their trusts.
Israelmore Ayivor
#30. I'm interested in gay characters - not trying to sensationalize gay characters, just [representing] who are in my personal life. I'm interested in exploring my world and my friends, and a lot of them happen to be gay.
Jamie Babbit
#31. We develop our whole character from our thoughts, actions, attentive observations, and from the resolute pursuit of our inspirational dreams.
Kilroy J. Oldster
#32. People who don't know the true character of God - who don't believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger - can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.
Joyce Meyer
#33. Experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a state depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men; for the nation is only the aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of personal, improvement.
Samuel Smiles
#34. Let us respect the unique character and the personal world of each and every human being
Masami Saionji
#35. The movies I make tend not to be quite reality but the characters are inspired by real people and they're always very personal.
Wes Anderson
#36. I said, 'Wouldn't it be great if Matt Damon's character fell in love with a girl with a real butt?' They were like, 'Yeah sure, sure - here's your personal trainer.'
Franka Potente
#37. We've all read, I'm sure, a Superman book where we didn't really feel like we knew the character. Where the writer, often with the best of intentions, has tried put a personal stamp on the character, whether it be to try and make him more current, or cool, or have a broader appeal, etc.
Gary Frank
#39. Who you are when you have no power to say anything, and who you become when you have power to say everything will determine whether you are a leader or not.
Israelmore Ayivor
#40. As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by praise or censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my purpose by any personal altercation; and the man who cannot do this, is not fit for a public character.
Thomas Paine
#41. Many aspects of the human condition are beautiful and many others are vile. Betrayal and personal agony represent a maddening part of being human. A person can maintain personal dignity by exercising restraint, remaining true to their conscience, and preserving under difficult conditions.
Kilroy J. Oldster
#42. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
Anne Frank
#43. The truth is, the personal ends up becoming part of your professional. As an actor, much of your work happens at home as you try things out on your family. Sometimes you stay in character unbeknownst to you and keep practicing.
Terrence Howard
#44. Fateful encounters with a cruel world reveal our character. No human is immune from heartbreaking loss. Regardless of our socioeconomic status, eventually everybody shall suffer a grievous personal loss, a body blow that inflicts pain of inexpressible magnitude.
Kilroy J. Oldster
#45. What Robert was trying to do so intently was, in fact, no more than craft. He did no more than copy my tics and twitches - even to the point of staring at my family portrait, a very personal part of my disguise, for his character research -
Jeff Lindsay
#46. Our human landscape is overburdened with competitions and contests. Art need not be a contest. Art is a personal quest for quality. Quality is the forerunner of acceptance. Character is the forerunner of quality. Be your own discriminating connoisseur.
Robert Genn
#47. My own personal process with movies is to develop the characters with the actors and, when I've done that properly, you can't imagine anyone else, but that actor, playing that part.
Doug Liman
#48. For me, each nuance of a color is in some way an individual, a being who is not only from the same race as the base color, but who definitely possesses a distinct character and personal soul.
Yves Klein
#49. How we choose to deal with pain is ultimately the measure of who we are and of the success we have in closing our gaps.
Hyrum W. Smith
#50. When you write a character and their dialogue, you can't help imagining how you would be acting if you were them. You kind of have to relate to all of them. It's the most personal thing I've ever done.
Tom Ford
#51. It is only when one is under extreme duress that one's true character is revealed.
Christopher Earle
#52. I think the tragic feeling is invoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing
his sense of personal dignity.
Arthur Miller
#53. It is very humbling to see my own character defects in someone who annoys me. At the end of the day, I realize they have actually prompted positive change in me.
Auliq Ice
#54. Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.
Daniel Webster
#55. A garden that one makes oneself becomes associated with one's personal history and that of one's friends, interwoven with one's tastes, preferences and character and constitutes a sort of unwritten autobiography.
Alfred Austin
#56. As far as I am concerned, Don Quixote is the most metal fictional character that I know. Single handed, he is trying to change the world, regardless of any personal consequences.
Christopher Lee
#57. When I write songs, I try to remove myself a little bit. Obviously they're very personal to me, but it feels easier if I feel like I'm writing characters.
Hozier
#59. I like doing character movies. I like doing movies about personal situations; that's what I love about dealing with things.
Will Gluck
#60. Personal discipline is a most powerful character quality and one worthy of dedicating your life to nurturing.
Elizabeth George
#61. Bob Harras' personal and creative integrity is respected and renowned throughout the comic book industry. As an editor, he provides invaluable insight into storytelling and character.
Jim Lee
#62. I am inclined to say that the personal attendance and intervention of women in election proceedings, even apart from any suspicion of the wider objects of many of the promoters of the present movement, would be a practical evil not only of the gravest, but even of an intolerable character.
William E. Gladstone
#63. I don't worry so much about the audience. I want them very much to be involved and enjoy the movie, but I try to just inhabit the character in a full way, where I can create a personal stake.
Willem Dafoe
#64. Style is as unique and nontransferable and perfectly personal as a fingerprint. It is wise to take the time to develop one's own way of being, increasing those things one does well and eliminating the elements in one's character which can hinder and diminish the good personality.
Maya Angelou
#65. Phyllida's hair was where her power resided. It was expensively set into a smooth dome, like a band shell for the presentation of that long-running act, her face.
Jeffrey Eugenides
#67. ELANTRIS is a new BEN HUR for the fantasy genre, with a sweeping, epic storyline and closely personal characters.
Kevin J. Anderson
#68. Having problems doesn't make you noble or virtuous, it makes you human. Nobility and virtue comes from the way that you handle your problems and either learn to move past them or live with them if out of your control.
Oli Anderson
#69. It's grown into a personal relationship, yeah. I'm crazy about Jerry. I think he's a unique character.
Jon Voight
#70. I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character.
Dennis Farina
#71. Accountability and self-responsibility are critical to our success in personal, professional and public life. However, we often look for those character traits in others, rather than inculcating them in ourselves.
Vishwas Chavan
#72. A big part of honesty is self-discipline, personal resolve, and taking pride in who you are as a person and what each action means to your character.
Jeffrey Gitomer
#73. I think my own personal style always ends up seeping into characters that I play. I've always had a very distinct idea of fashion for myself, and what a character should wear.
Zooey Deschanel
#74. There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
#75. Baseball is a soap opera that plays out day after day, one that a lot of elderly women watch until the characters and the plot becomes a part of their life. She got to enjoy the personal side of the players. They were her kids. The Braves were her family.
Bob Hope
#76. Our politics suffers from a shortage of people who put character and country before career and personal gain.
Cal Thomas
#77. Also, I do not like the companionship of women. They are petty and personal. They hang on to their mysteries and secrets, they act and pretend. I like the character of men better.
Anais Nin
#78. Crime is one of the leads of the show. If there's ever anything that deals with a character's personal life, you don't have to worry about it getting too crazy. People don't have to worry about character arcs. Each episode is a self-contained unit.
Christopher Meloni
#79. This outer life, though obviously horrid; often seems the real one - there's grit in it. It does breed character. Do personal relations lead to sloppiness in the end?
E. M. Forster
#80. By taking elements you observe in life, you can develop qualities in your acting life that you don't ordinarily call upon in your personal life.
Stella Adler
#81. A big part of what I wanted to do with this character was go from when I was a boy and try and develop into a man, really try and play him as a man who is on this search, on a journey of personal, spiritual, political, social discovery.
Orlando Bloom
#82. What is a good man if not one who does not believe in himself to the exclusion of others? ... He was asked to bear what cannot be borne--what should not be borne. I hope never to be so tested, for I have it on the best authority that I will not bear it.
Norman Lock
#83. My music is a very personal reflection of me, whereas, acting a role, that's a reflection of another character.
Riz Ahmed
#84. Leaders show examples. They have something to offer and they'll offer it by the process of how they got it. Anyone who has no examples to show may not lead better.
Israelmore Ayivor
#85. The habits of feeling, action and judgment that comprise good character depend on personal self-discipline and powerful aspiration to become a good person, all of which must be drawn from within.
Edwin J. Delattre
#86. I've always used my own personal emotions and things that I've gone through in my life to build a character. The work that I do before a film feels almost like therapy, between me and whoever I'm playing.
Kirsten Dunst
#87. There is never a personal-life connection between my characters and myself. I'm a professional and I can access what I need to access, so there's no bleed-over. I didn't need to believe in aliens to play Mulder. As for my personal life, everything is fantastic right now.
David Duchovny
#88. Character is not the enemy of self-expression and personal freedom, it is their necessary precondition.
James Q. Wilson
#89. There must be some point, at which the lawyer's own personal and social morality will rebel against his traditional allegiance to his client.
Harry Jones
#90. Discipleship is developing a personal, lifelong, obedient relationship with Jesus Christ in which He transforms your character into Christlikeness; changes your values to Kingdom values; and involves you in His mission in the home, in the church, and in the world.
Avery T. Willis Jr.
#91. I like characters that do big things boldly and are driven by intensely personal feelings.
Mark Pellegrino
#92. I love factoids. It's hard for me to keep those out. It just takes realizing that it's stopping the character. Part of it is the decision to keep things where you want to train the spotlight. For me, it's the personal side. I always ask, How does the person inside the character relate to this?
Adam Braver
#93. America had shifted from what influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a culture of character to a culture of personality, and opened up a Pandora's box of personal anxieties of which we would never recover.
Susan Cain
#94. I always try to get as personal as I can with the characters that I play, which is a reason why I don't play a lot of characters.
Romany Malco
#95. Wealth gives you options, and your decisions about what to do with your options say much about your character.
Beau Sides
#96. Manliness consists not in bluff, bravado or loneliness. It consists in daring to do the right thing and facing consequences whether it is in matters social, political or other. It consists in deeds not words.
Mahatma Gandhi
#97. One of the most liberating things a person can do is to admit that he or she is human and is flawed.
Innocent Mwatsikesimbe
#98. Deal honestly and objectively with yourself; intellectual honesty and personal courage are the hallmarks of great character.
Brian Tracy
#99. Sometimes I like to think it would be nice if you just had a character, and your personal life was your personal life. My life is definitely out there, you know?
Jenna Marbles
#100. When the entire moral energy of an individual goes into the cultivation of personal integrity, we all know how unlovely the result may become; the character is upright, of course, but too coated over with the result of its own endeavor to be attractive.
Jane Addams
