Plutarch Character Quotations

In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.

Character is long-standing habit.

Character is simply habit long continued.

There is no stronger test of a person's character than power and authority, exciting as they do every passion, and discovering every latent vice.

It is a high distinction for a homely woman to be loved for her character rather than for beauty.

Friendship requires a steady, constant, and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his intimacy.

It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.

It is not the most distinguished achievements that men's virtues or vices may be best discovered; but very often an action of small note. An casual remark or joke shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles.

Character is inured habit.

Blinded as they are to their true character by self-love, every man is his own first and chiefest flatterer, prepared, therefore, to welcome the flatterer from the outside, who only comes confirming the verdict of the flatterer within.

It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension.

It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die.

Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.

By the study of their biographies, we receive each man as a guest into our minds, and we seem to understand their character as the result of a personal acquaintance, because we have obtained from their acts the best and most important means of forming an opinion about them. "What greater pleasure could'st thou gain than this?" What more valuable for the elevation of our own character?