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.
There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
In every man's writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded.
The simultaneous existence of opposite virtues in the soul — like pincers to catch hold of God.
The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit — a reputation, character.
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice and wrong pay to virtue and justice.
Virtue has great power, but not if it is imposed—only when it is chosen.
Certainly it is correct to say: Conscience is the voice of God.
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
Conscience illuminated by the Presence of Jesus Christ in the heart must be the guide of every man.
Every moment celebrates obsequies over the virtues of its predecessor.
That instinct for human character that is perhaps inherent in an imaginative writer.
The Superego, in censoring the unconscious and in implanting conscience, also censors the censor.