Character Quotes
Anyone else on this page has about a third as many entries as Shakespeare. Next come Pope, Milton, James Russell Lowell and Goethe. The sentence worth reading in context is Emerson’s, from The American Scholar (1837): character is higher than intellect, and a great soul will be strong to live as well as strong to think.
Shaw, in Man and Superman (1903), is here for a remark about marriage and morality, which shows how loosely the page’s topic is applied.
Three entries are flagged. Two sayings credited to the Roman mime-writer Publilius Syrus, one about character deciding every man’s fortune and one about doing nothing at once both hastily and prudently, are disputed. A passage credited to Joseph Addison, about imperfection being what complains of the imperfect, is marked misattributed.
Excellence when concealed, differs but little from buried worthlessness.
The injury done to character is greater than can be estimated.
Thou art moist and soft clay; thou must instantly be shaped by the glowing wheel.
Retire within thyself, and thou will discover how small a stock is there.
They [the present generation] are like rats crawling about the club of Hercules.
Common natures pay with what they do, noble ones with what they are.
He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.
Believe me; it is prudence that first forsakes the wretched.