Quotes about Character

It formed a sweet picture.  The long light hair curled slightly on the temples; the eyes were large and serious; the figure almost too graceful.  I did not marvel how Catherine Earnshaw could forget her first friend for such an individual.

If a man has reported to you, that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defense to what has been told you: but reply, The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only.

Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, By setting himself to live the noblest life himself.

If you have assumed any character beyond your strength, you have both demeaned yourself ill in that and quitted one which you might have supported.

We must consider what is the time for singing, what the time for play, and in whose presence: what will be unsuited to the occasion; whether our companions are to despise us, or we to despise ourselves: when to jest, and whom to mock at: and on what occasion to be conciliatory and to whom: in a word, how one ought to maintain one's character in society. Wherever you swerve from any of these principles, you suffer loss at once; not loss from without, but issuing from the very act itself.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the author chooses, - if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be his pleasure that you should enact a poor man, see that you act it well; or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen. For this is your business, to act well the given part; but to choose it, belongs to another.

Taking account of the value of externals, you see, comes at some cost to the value of one's own character.

If anyone tells you that a certain person has spoken in a bad way about you, don't make excuses about what has been said, but answer: "He was ignorant of my other faults, otherwise he would have mentioned those also.

For determining the rational and the irrational, we employ not only our estimates of the value of external things, but also the criterion of that which is in keeping with one's own character.

If anyone tells you that such a person speaks ill of you, don't make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: " He does not know my other faults, else he would not have mentioned only these.

If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.

And every animal is better or worse from his own merit (virtue) or his own badness. Is there then no virtue in man only? and must we look to the hair, and our clothes and to our ancestors?