Character Quotes - Page 28

• She began to see that character is a better possession than money, rank, intellect, or beauty, and to feel that if greatness is what a wise man has defined it to be, 'truth, reverence, and good will,' then her friend Friedrich Bhaer was not only good, but great.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Wise, Greatness, Men

  Louisa May Alcott (2009). “Good Wives: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.195, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Home, Eye, Men

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• To follow Jesus implies that we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape and direction by the one who calls us. To follow Jesus means picking up rhythms and ways of doing things that are often unsaid but always derivative from Jesus, formed by the influence of Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we can't separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way that he is doing it. To follow Jesus is as much, or maybe even more, about feet as it is about ears and eyes" (The Way of Jesus, Eugene H. Peterson, 22).

  Eugene H. Peterson

  Jesus, Mean, Eye

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• Conflict is the microscope of a book. When it's trained on a character, you see what's underneath the narratives of physical description. You see whether someone is strong or weak, principled or apathetic, heroic or villainous." (J.R. on writing the BDB series)

  J.R. Ward

  Strong, Book, Writing

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• ... characters are not born like people, of woman; they are born of a situation, a sentence, a metaphor containing in a nutshell a basic human possibility that the author thinks no one else has discovered or said something essential about.

  Milan Kundera

  Thinking, People, Essentials

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• No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.

  Orson F. Whitney

  Faith, God, Christian

  "We Believe: Doctrines and Principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". Book by Rulon T. Burton, p. 10, 1994.

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• Oh, I'm developing a beautiful character! It droops a bit under cold and frost, but it does grow fast when the sun shines. That's the way with everybody. I don't agree with the theory that adversity and sorrow and disappointment develop moral strength. The happy people are the ones who are bubbling over with kindliness.

  Jean Webster

  Beautiful, Disappointment, Adversity

  Jean Webster (2016). “Daddy Long-Legs and Dear Enemy: Illustrated”, p.35, Jester House Publishing

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• All your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be in vain, if at the same time you do not build your character, and attain mastery over your thoughts and actions.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Spiritual, Would Be, Mastery

  "Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore".

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• Everything is a tale, Martin. What we believe, what we know, what we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Dream, Believe, Emotional

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• Redemption is something you have to fight for in a very personal, down-dirty way. Some of our characters lose that, some stray from that, and some regain it.

  Joss Whedon

  Dirty, Fighting, Redemption

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• To be honest, I didn't want to believe that Christianity could radically transform someone's character and values. It was much easier to raise doubts and manufacture outrageous objections that to consider the possibility that God actually could trigger a revolutionary turn-around in such a depraved and degenerate life.

  Lee Strobel

  Believe, Doubt, Want

  Lee Strobel (2000). “The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity”, p.225, Harper Collins

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• You need as much ballast as possible to stop you from floating away; you need people around you, things going on, otherwise life is like some film where the money ran out, and there are no sets, or locations, or supporting actors, and it's just one bloke on his own staring into the camera with nothing to do and nobody to speak to, and who'd believe in this character then?

  Nick Hornby

  Believe, People, Life Is Like

  Nick Hornby (1996). “High Fidelity”, p.85, Penguin

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• Like all of my friends, she's a lousy judge of character.

  David Sedaris

  Judging, Judge Of Character, My Friends

  David Sedaris (2000). “Me talk pretty one day”

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• Dad's Theory of Arrogance--that everyone always assumes they're the Principal Character of Desire and/or Loathing in everybody else's Broadway Play.

  Marisha Pessl

  Dad, Play, Arrogance

  Marisha Pessl (2006). “Special Topics in Calamity Physics”, p.197, Penguin

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• The rule for finding plots for character-centered novels, which is to ask: 'So what's the worst possible thing I can do to *this* guy?' And then do it.

  Lois McMaster Bujold

  Guy, Plot, Worst

  Lois McMaster Bujold (1999). “Cordelia's Honor”, p.389, Baen Books

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• Some attribute had departed from her, the permanence of which had been essential to keep her a woman. Such is frequently the fate, and such the stern development, of the feminine character and person, when the woman has encountered, and lived through, an experience of peculiar severity. If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or—and the outward semblance is the same—crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Heart, Fate, Departed

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (2013). “The Scarlet Letter (Annotated And Illustrated Edition)”, p.178, Jazzybee Verlag

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• I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes... in a total misapprehension of character at some point or other: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why, or in what the deception originated. Sometimes one is guided by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge.

  Jane Austen

  Mistake, Stupid, Gay

  Jane Austen (2015). “Sense and Sensibility: Ignatius Critical Editions”, p.92, Ignatius Press

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• You have a valid complaint, and I do recognize it ... but you are reading into things a little bit. Just the same, I will do my best to make horrible things happen to a bunch of white people before something else so graphic hits a minority character.

  Robert Kirkman

  Reading, White, People

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• To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.

  Thomas Merton

  Love, Life, Wisdom

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.60, New Directions Publishing

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• The writer by nature of his profession is a dreamer and a conscious dreamer. He must imagine, and imagination takes humility, love and great courage. How can you create a character without live and the struggle that goes with love?

  Carson McCullers

  Struggle, Humility, Imagination

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• If I want to play mind games, I'd buy a Rubik's cube. ~ Acheron, a character.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Games, Play, Mind

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• Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes and his weaknesses.

  Democritus

  Mistake, Passion, Fate

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• My God, that scene in Monster Inc. where the monsters realise that their entire world is founded on hurting children -look at that for a change! Two galumphing cartoon characters making a shattering realisation about their world and their role in sustaining it. A truly epic moment. It's stunning.

  Russell T Davies

  Hurt, Children, Epic

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• There were definitely parts of my character I didn’t approve of, and maybe from time to time I had moments when I didn’t like myself much. But I got through each day as it came to me, and so far I’d survived every thing life had thrown at me. I could only hope that the survival was worth the price I’d paid.

  Charlaine Harris

  Survival, Each Day, Moments

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• You know what would help this boy?" Demeter mused. "Farming." Persephone rolled her eyes. "Mother-" "Six months behind a plow. Excellent character building.

  Rick Riordan

  Mother, Eye, Boys

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