Character Quotes

9624 Character quotes by 4950 unique authors

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have. — Marva Collins
There is a great deal of self-will in the world, but very little genuine independence of character. — Frederick William Faber
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber… — Oscar Wilde
Respect for character is always diminished in proportion to the number among whom the blame or praise is to be divided. — James Madison
Men of energy of character must have enemies; because there are two sides to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it… — Thomas Jefferson
It is abhorrent to me when a fine intelligence is paired with an unsavory character. — Albert Einstein
Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Band Aid was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music. — Steven Morrissey
Show me a character whose life arouses my curiosity, and my flesh begins crawling with suspense. — Fawn M. Brodie
In the range of my character at any given moment, I have acted in the only way it seemed to me I could have acted.… — Anne Truitt
Often I'll find clues to where the story might go by figuring out where the characters would rather not go. — Unknown Author
In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other. — Diane Johnson
Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else ... Fiction depends for its… — Eudora Welty
No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichÃ©s that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters,… — W. Somerset Maugham
Time is what makes good stories. Much has been cooking for a long time, and at last finds an out in narration one day. That's… — Barry Hannah
Talents of the novelist: ... observation of character, analysis of emotion, people's feelings, personal relations ... — Virginia Woolf
Character gives us qualities, but it is in actions - what we do - that we are happy or the reverse. ... All human happiness… — Aristotle
Dialogue in fiction is what characters do to one another. — Elizabeth Bowen
The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises it is flat. Flat… — E. M. Forster
Characters must not brood too long. They must not waste time running up and down ladders in their own insides. — E. M. Forster
When you describe the miserable and unfortunate, and want to make the reader feel pity, try to be somewhat colder - that seems to give… — Anton Chekhov

Who Wrote These Character Quotes

4,950 authors contributed a total of 9,624 Character Quotes, led by these top contributors: