Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. Some people have easy temperaments and weak characters; others have difficult temperaments and strong characters. We are all prone to confuse the two in assessing people we associate with. Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable. Of course, the optimum for a person is to possess both an easy temperament and a strong character, but this is a rare combination, and few of us are that lucky.
quote by Sydney J. Harris

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes

It's a funny show. The characters are surprisingly likable, given how ugly they are. We've got this huge cast of characters that we can move around. And over the last few seasons, we've explored some of the secondary characters' personal lives a bit more.
quote by Matt Groening

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
I think it's definitely beneficial for these characters to have good acting voices behind them and it affects the characters in a way that people can feel like they're part of the game and that they know these characters.
quote by Tara Strong

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!

Those who have easy, cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments, regardless of money, making it, or success.
quote by Joyce Brothers

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!

All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story.
quote by Nicholas Sparks

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.
quote by Carlisle Floyd

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Easy and Difficult
Easy and Difficult
Easy to get a place in someone’s address book
Difficult is to get a place in someone’s heart
Easy is to judge the mistakes of others
Difficult is to recognize our own mistakes
Easy is to talk without thinking
Difficult is to control the tongue
Easy is to hurt someone who loves us
Difficult is to heal the wound
Easy is to forgive others
Difficult is to ask for forgiveness
Easy is to set rules
Difficult is to follow them
Easy is to dream every night
Difficult is to fight for a dream
Easy is to show victory
Difficult is to accommodate defeat with dignity
Easy is to admire a full moon
Difficult is to see the other side
Easy is to stumble on a stone
Difficult is to get up
Easy is to enjoy life every day
Difficult is to give its real value
Easy is to pray every night
Difficult is to find God in small things
Easy is to promise something to someone
Difficult is to fulfill the promise
Easy is to say we love
Difficult is to show it every day
Easy is to criticize others
Difficult is to improve oneself
Easy is to make mistakes
Difficult is to learn from them
Easy is to weep for lost love
Difficult is to take care of it so as not to lose it
Easy is to think about improving
Difficult is to stop thinking and putting it into action
Easy is to think bad of others
Difficult is to give them the benefit of doubt
Easy is to receive
Difficult is to give
poem by Bashyam Narayanan

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I've always tried to be fair to my subjects. That's easy when they are as likable and admirable as Lewis and Clark, or Eisenhower.
quote by Stephen Ambrose

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Part of the success of the show is that the audience sees themselves in the characters, becomes the characters. The more they inhabit the characters, the more they see.
quote by Bebe Neuwirth

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!

They really stay just characters to me. I look at them, and I don't see always the same person up there. And hopefully, people will see that too. Because it's very easy to bore people, and that's a killer. So hopefully that won't happen.
quote by Charlize Theron

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
It is easier to influence strong than weak characters in life.
quote by Margot Asquith

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The relationship between reader and characters is very difficult. It is even more peculiar than the relationship between the writer and his characters.
quote by Guillermo Cabrera Infante

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people.
quote by Laurell K. Hamilton

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A Work Of Fiction
reviewing the past pages of life
you find out that most of the chapters are sad
the characters are actually confused
they are not certain what shall happen to them
at the conclusive page
you have subjected them to all doubts
in such a suspended animation
and they are attuned to your unpredictability
some of them do not expect much
they know your temperament
and the patterns are like the foldings
of a brain
like a labyrinth of one misinterpretation
to another
the characters understand you
all they ask is that you live and even if they
all die at the end
they implore thA Work Of Fictionat you lengthen this
novel of life
because even if they are just your
works of fiction
in truth
they all love you
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
If your mind is strong, all difficult things will become easy; if your mind is weak, all easy things will become difficult.
In or orchestra we have many nationalities, types, and temperaments.
quote by Artur Rodzinski

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head.
quote by S.E. Hinton

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
All the people in Star Trek will always be known as those characters. And what characters to have attached to your name in life! The show is such a phenomenon all over the world.
quote by Nichelle Nichols

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Before there was any talk of a movie, people would sometimes ask me what actors I would imagine playing these characters. And the only thing I could ever say is: I have such a clear idea of these characters that they'd have to play themselves.
quote by Michael Cunningham

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
They are imaginary characters. But perhaps not solely the products of my imagination, since there are some aspects of the characters that relate to my own experience of a wide variety of people.
quote by Margaret Mahy

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
quote by William James

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!