Quotes about Character

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

Unbounded courage and compassion join'd / Tempering each other in the victor's mind / Alternately proclaim him good and great / And make the hero and the man complete.

Thy father's merit sets thee up to view, And shows thee in the fairest point of light, To make thy virtues, or thy faults, conspicuous.

There is no character more frequently given to a writer than that of being a genius. I have heard many a little sonneteer called a fine genius. There is not a heroic scribbler in the nation that has not his admirers who think him a great genius; and as for your smatterers in tragedy, there is scarce a man among them who is not cried up by one or other for a prodigious genius.

Were all the vexations of life put together, we should find that a great part of them proceed from those calumnies and reproaches we spread abroad concerning one another.

One of the best springs of generous and worthy actions, is having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves: whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himself in his own estimation.

Self discipline is that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.

Knowledge is that which, next to virtue, truly raises one person above another.

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

Pee-wee Herman yelling through a vocoder

Her instinct was always to act out of kindness and generosity instead of self-interest. She was a better person than me, and I was a better person when I was around her.