Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Talking in a soft modest voice, he [Barry Goldwater] radiated at this moment the skinny boyish sincerity of a fellow who wears glasses but is determined nevertheless to have a good time. It was not unreminiscent of Arthur Miller: that same mixture of vast solemnity and unspoiled boyhood, a sort of shucks and aw shit in the voice.

If you talked or laughed in church, told lies, had impure thoughts or conversations, you were bad; if you obeyed your parents or guardians, went to confession and communion regularly, said prayers for the dead, you were good.

Listen to a man's words and look at the pupil of his eye. How can a man conceal his character?

No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.

The ultimate test of a nation's character is not how it responds to adversity in war but how it meets the challenge of peace.

When the character's right, looks are a greater delight.

His own character is the arbiter of every ones fortune.

Not on the stage alone, in the world also, a man's real character comes out best in his asides.