In a world where brevity often heralds brilliance, powerful ideas are encapsulated in just a handful of words. Welcome to our curated collection, where each quote is a testament to the art of succinct storytelling. These under-84-character gems capture wisdom, humor, and profound insight, resonating across time and space. Dive in, and let these memorable quotes inspire and ignite your imagination in just a few impactful characters.
1. “What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.” - A.A. Milne
2. “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” - Mark Twain
3. “There is a very great difference — is there not? — between the temporal and the eternal judgments, a very great difference between a man's reputation and a man's character, for reputation is what men think and say of us, while character is what God and the angels know of us.” - Price Collier
4. “What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.” - Anais Nin
5. “Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow and only one thing endures - character.” - Harry Truman
6. “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.” - Omar Bradley
7. “Even water carves monuments of stone, so do our thoughts shape our character.” - Hugh B. Brown
8. “Character is not made by crisis. It is only exhibited.” - Robert Freeman
9. “We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.” - Socrates
10. “A man with no enemies is a man with no character.” - Paul Newman
11. “One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’.” - John Burroughs
12. “Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” - James A. Michener
13. “When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.” - Edna O'Brien
14. “Sometimes we fight who we are, struggling against ourselves and our natures. But we must learn to accept who we are and appreciate who we become. We must love ourselves for what and who we are, and believe in our talents.” - Harley King
15. “God doesn't act like the Church. No, instead, the Church must act like God.” - Kim Clement
16. “Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
17. “It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.” - Henri Frédéric Amiel
18. “He (William Cort) had some desire to be successful, but it did not burn so strongly in him that he was prepared to overcome his character to achieve it.” - Iain Pears
19. “I believe that all novels, ... deal with character, and that it is to express character – not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or celebrate the glories of the British Empire, that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved ... The great novelists have brought us to see whatever they wish us to see through some character. Otherwise they would not be novelists, but poet, historians, or pamphleteers.” - Ursula K. Le Guin
20. “You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.” - Richard Bach
21. “I have a deep-down belief that there are folks in the world who are good through and through, and others who came in mean and will go out mean. It's like coffee. Once it's roasted, it all looks brown. Until you pour hot water on it and see what comes out. Folks get into hot water, you see what comes out.” - Nancy E. Turner
22. “We all are men, in our own natures frail, and capable of our flesh; few are angels.” - William Shakespeare
23. “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.” - Gena Showalter
24. “The average personality reshapes frequently, every few years even our bodies undergo a complete overhaul - desirable or not, it is a natural thing that we should change. All right, here were two people who never would change. That is what Mildred Grossman had in common with Holly Golightly. They would never change because they'd been given their character too soon; which, like sudden riches, leads to a lack of proportion: the one had splurged herself into a top-heavy realist, the other a lopsided romantic.” - Truman Capote
25. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” - Charlotte Brontë
26. “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.” - Stendhal
27. “Why are some countries able, despite their very real and serious problems, to press ahead along the road to reconciliation, recovery, and redevelopment while others cannot? These are critical questions for Africa, and their answers are complex and not always clear. Leadership is crucial, of course. Kagame was a strong leader–decisive, focused, disciplined, and honest–and he remains so today. I believe that sometimes people's characters are molded by their environment. Angola, like Liberia, like Sierra Leone, is resource-rich, a natural blessing that sometimes has the sad effect of diminishing the human drive for self-sufficiency, the ability and determination to maximize that which one has. Kagame had nothing. He grew up in a refugee camp, equipped with only his own strength of will and determination to create a better life for himself and his countrymen. ” - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
28. “There is a curious thing that happens with the passage of time: a calcification of character... Change isn't always for the worst; the shell that forms around a piece of sand looks to some people like an irritation, and to others, like a pearl.” - Jodi Picoult
29. “What comes out of you when you are squeezed is what is inside of you.” - Wayne W. Dyer
30. “In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character.” - Noah Webster
31. “A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.” - Charlie Chaplin
32. “Daja doesn't exactly need to be tested on whether she's honorable or not." "Doesn't she? Don't all of you? This is your first taste of the things which may come from your being powerful mages. People will offer you gold, status, even love. I want to know how you will react. If want to know if your teachers will release greedy, thoughtless monsters into the world.” - Tamora Pierce
33. “Have you got any soul?" a woman asks the next afternoon. That depends, I feel like saying; some days yes, some days no. A few days ago I was right out; now I've got loads, too much, more than I can handle. I wish I could spread it a bit more evenly, I want to tell her, get a better balance, but I can't seem to get it sorted. I can see she wouldn't be interested in my internal stock control problems though, so I simply point to where I keep the soul I have, right by the exit, just next to the blues.” - Nick Hornby
34. “Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own currency. And in love, the currency is virtue. You love people not for what you do for them or what they do for you. You love them for the values, the virtues, which they have achieved in their own character.” - Ayn Rand
35. “You do me proud, Captain. But, dear, I want to say one thing and then I'm done; for you don't need much advice of mine after my good man has spoken. I read somewhere that every inch of rope in the British Navy has a strand of red in it, so wherever a bit of it is found it is known. That is the text of my little sermon to you. Virtue, which means honour, honesty, courage, and all that makes character, is the red thread that marks a good man wherever he is. Keep that always and everywhere, so that even if wrecked by misfortune, that sign shall still be found and recognized. Yours is a rough life, and your mates not all we could wish, but you can be a gentleman in the true sense of the word; and no matter what happens to your body, keep your soul clean, your heart true to those who love you, and do your duty to the end.” - Louisa May Alcott
36. “Worthy character is best forged from a life of consistent, correct choices centered in the teachings of the Master. ” - Richard G. Scott
37. “There was not a moving up into vacated places; there was simply an anachronistic staying on between a vanishing past and an incalculable future.” - F.Scott Fitzgerald
38. “Rascals are always sociable, and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others company.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
39. “She taught me I should never do anything in private I did not want talked about in public, and cautioned me not to talk in my sleep.” - Patrick Rothfuss
40. “Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.” - Lawrence G. Lovasik
41. “Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?” - Cornelia Funke
42. “Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.” - R.J. Palacio
43. “people have character strength but they lack communication skills, and that undoubtedly affects the quality of relationships as well.” - Stephen R. Covey
44. “By judging others, you make yourself easy to judge.” - Ashly Lorenzana
45. “He could not name precisely the special quality she possessed. A glow. An exuberance. An aggressive and determined joy that gave her the courage to push past his defenses, to confront him with unflinching courage, to look into his heart and to see something there worth fighting for.” - Susan Wiggs
46. “Be more concerned with character than reputation. Character is what you are, reputation is what people think you are.” - John Wooden
47. “Authors can write stories without people assuming that they are autobiographies, but songwriters and poets are often considered to be the characters in their works. I like Michelangelo's vision, 'I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” - Criss Jami
48. “The boundaries of this world are forever shifting – from day to night, joy to sorrow, love to hate, and from life itself to death; and who can say at what moment we may suddenly cross over the border, from one state of existence to another, like heat applied to some flammable substance? I have been given my own ever-changing margins, across which I move, continually and hungrily, like a migrating animal. Now civilized, now untamed; now responsive to decency and human concern, now viciously attuned to the darkest of desires.” - Michael Cox
49. “Nicio viata nu e stricata cu exceptia celei care este oprita. Daca vrei sa strici caracterul cuiva nu trebuie decat sa il reformezi” - Oscar Wilde
50. “A better man wouldn’t play this ‘sweethearts’ game with her when he knew very well it couldn’t lead to more.But he wasn’t a better man. He was Colin Sandhurst, reckless, incorrigible rogue—and damn it, he couldn’t resist. He wanted to amuse her, spoil her, feed her sweets and delicacies. Steal a kiss or two, when she wasn’t expecting it. He wanted to be a besotted young buck squiring his girl around the fair.In other words, he wanted to live honestly. Just for the day.” - Tessa Dare
51. “Unless a person can give reasons, there is, literally, no reason why anyone else should take that person seriously. But without reasons, all we are left with is emotional blackmail. We sometimes call it 'moral blackmail,' but it has nothing to do with morals, only with the implied juvenile threat of having a tantrum unless everyone else gives in.” - N.T. Wright
52. “Davellon may be a village, but the Davellon House can be anything you make it. Nobility has to start somewhere. It might as well start with you. Let nobody look down on you, for whatever reason, My Lord. Titles are granted or inherited, nobility isn't.~Tenaxos I to Landar Parmingh, Baron Davellon” - Andrew Ashling
53. “É preciso que todos os que lidam comigo se convençam de que sou assim, e que exigir-me os sentimentos, aliás muito dignos, de um homem vulgar e banal, é como exigir-me que tenha olhos azuis e cabelo louro.” - Fernando Pessoa
54. “I go on the presumption that everyone's full of shit until proven otherwise, and this usually serves me in good stead.” - Dennis Lehane
55. “it's through the simple things in life, through its games, when our minds mature the most and we grow knowledgeable. It's also when the cloth masks of our outer, false personalities are torn asunder, and we are able to see every last blemish of a man's genuine character that they hide beneath... no matter how dark or obscene it may be.” - Evan Meekins
56. “There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
57. “No one does anything uncharacteristic of who they are.” - Richard Bach
58. “His character is like an emerald—multifaceted and enhanced by inclusions.” - Melika Dannese Lux
59. “Men of few words are the best men."(3.2.41)” - William Shakespeare
60. “She, the clear heart'ed soul shall show a small crack (in heart) as clearly as the equally transparent, but dirty rogue can cleverly hide it.” - Prof Priyavrat Thareja
61. “Understanding character is a vital part of the process of finding a relationship partner and developing a strong and vibrant relationship together.” - Susanne M. Alexander
62. “Character is what we do when no one else is watching"~R. Alan Woods [2012]” - R. Alan Woods
63. “99% of all addicts are liars and thieves. This might sound unfair and even close-minded, but it's the truth. There are some exceptions to the rules, but they are incredibly rare. Most people are no match for their addictions. They will be driven to do things they would normally never have considered all in the name of getting high. Sad, but true. So if you're thinking of trying drugs, keep in mind that all the people you will be dealing with are likely to steal from you and lie to you at your own expense.” - Ashly Lorenzana
64. “A nun I know once told me she kept begging God to take her character defects away from her. After years of this prayer, God finally got back to her: I'm not going to take anything away from you, you have to give it to Me.” - Anne Lamott
65. “It's not so much what we do that matters, but what kind of person we choose to be.” - Kristi Bowman
66. “There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.” - Jane Austen
67. “People should know better than to be an ass in front of writers. We immortalize things. Lots of things. And we take liberties with character descriptions.” - Michelle M. Pillow
68. “Everyone makes mistakes, but only a person with integrity owns up to them.” - Nicole Guillaume
69. “Even pretty faces are mutilated by ugly character” - أحمد عمارة
70. “I've always regarded it as a test of character to dislike the Kennedys. I don't really respect anyone who falls for Camelot.” - Christopher Hitchens
71. “Character is contagious.” - Wayde Goodall
72. “We largely become what we have observed and respected.” - Wayde Goodall
73. “While your character flaws may have created mild problems for other people, they will create major problems for your spouse and your marriage.” - Timothy Keller
74. “Confidence is a pencil best sharpened with paper.” - Kale Burton
75. “Hortense was a wife; Valerie a mistress.Many men desire to have these two editions of the same work, although it is proof of deep inferiority in a man if he cannot make his wife his mistress. Seeking variety is a sign of impotence.” - Honoré de Balzac
76. “Just think how happy you'd be if you lost everything you have right now & then got it back.” - Ronald Reagan
77. “Any noble cause will encounter its share of setbacks. The strength of that cause is measured in how the men who fight for it respond. We refuse to give up, which is why we will prevail eventually.” - D.B. Jackson
78. “If you give people a chance, they shine.” - Billy Connolly
79. “But if Crake wanted her to stay longer on any given night, do it again maybe, she'd make some excuse—jet lag, a headache, something plausible. Her inventions were seamless, she was the best poker-faced liar in the world, so there would be a kiss goodbye for stupid Crake, a smile, a wave, a closed door, and the next minute there she would be, with Jimmy.” - Margaret Atwood
80. “For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character.” - Cressida Cowell
81. “You’re noble enough, Baudelaires. That’s all we can ask for in this world.” - Lemony Snicket
82. “Judge character by behavior.” - Lizelle Du Plessis
83. “To that point, he had always found the vicomtesse overflowing with friendly politeness, that sweet-flowing grace conferred by an aristocratic education, and which is never truly there unless it comes, automatically and unthinkingly, straight from the heart.[...]For anyone who had learned the social code, and Rastignac had absorbed it all in a flash, these words, that gesture, that look, that inflection in her voice, summed up all there was to know about the nature and the ways of men and women of her class. He was vividly aware of the iron hand underneath the velvet glove; the personality, and especially the self-centeredness, under the polished manners; the plain hard wood, under all the varnish. [...] Eugène had been entirely too quick to take this woman's word for her own kindness. Like all those who cannot help themselves, he had signed on the dotted line, accepting the delightful contract binding both benefactor and recipient, the very first clause of which makes clear that, as between noble souls, perfect equality must be forever maintained. Beneficience, which ties people together, is a heavenly passion, but a thoroughly misunderstood one, and quite as scarce as true love. Both stem from the lavish nature of great souls.” - Honoré de Balzac
84. “Sometimes you have to look past a person’s mistakes to see God’s presence.” - Shannon L. Alder
