“Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.”
“Good wombs have borne bad sons. -- (Miranda, I:2)”
“To measure the man, measure his heart.”
“What comes out of you when you are squeezed is what is inside of you.”
“A melancholy air can never be the right thing; what you want is a bored air. If you are melancholy, it must be because you want something, there is something in which you have not succeeded. It is shewing your inferiority. If you are bored, on the other hand, it is the person who has tried in vain to please you who is inferior.”
“Human beings have neither kindness, nor faith, nor charity beyond what serves to increase the pleasure of the moment.”
“Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him.”
“silence is not weakness and decency is not pride”
“Character is plot, plot is character.”
“A man s magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man s character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power. I was not a murderer. I was not like Victor Sells. I was Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I was a wizard. Wizards control their power. They don t let it control them. And wizards don t use magic to kill people. They use it to discover, to protect, to mend, to help. Not to destroy.”
“Towns are like people. Old ones often have character, the new ones are interchangeable.”
“Pale hair fell in waves to his shoulders, framing a face mortal females considered a sensual feast. They didn t know the man was actually a devil in angel s skin. They should have, though. He practically glowed with irreverence, and there was an unholy gleam in his green eyes that proclaimed he would laugh in your face while cutting out your heat. Or laugh in your face while you cut out his heart.”
“In all tests of character, when two viewpoints are pitted against one another, in the final analysis the thing that will strike you the most, is not who was right or wrong, strong or weak, wise or foolish.... but who would go to the greatest lengths in considering the other s perspective. ”
“It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.”
“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character.”
“A man far oftener appears to have a decided character from persistently following his temperament than from persistently following his principles.”
“You re thoughtful, Barbara, but you re not open. You re passionate, but you re hard. You re a good, decent, funny, wonderful woman, and I love you, but you re a pain in the ass.”