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.
Don't cross the bridge till you come to it,
Is a proverb old, and of excellent wit.
No nice extreme a true Italian knows;
But bid him go to hell, to hell he goes.
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to the observer doth thy history
Fully unfold.
Live with men as if God saw you; converse with God as if men heard you.
DUTY, n. That which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.
Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild;
In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child.
Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we see
Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!