The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Category Character

Featured Quote in Character

There was never a good knife made of bad steel.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard’s Almanack · 1732-1758

Subcategories

Ambition (5) Initiative (10) Integrity (2) Courage (9) Perseverance (15) Self-discipline (14) Diligence (33) Independence (20) Humility (8) Kindness (0) Responsibility (5) Prudence (8) Personal growth (4)

Character Quotes

“There was never a good knife made of bad steel.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly.”

Benjamin Franklin · The Way to Wealth, 1758 · Primary source

“Eaten bread is soon forgotten.”

Winston Churchill · The World Crisis, 1923-1931 · Primary source

“Character is higher than intellect.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · The American Scholar, 1837 · Primary source

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Old Man and the Sea, 1952 · Primary source

“It is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.”

Amelia Earhart · 20 Hrs. 40 Min., 1928 · Primary source

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“When the odds are hopeless, when all seems to be lost, then is the time to be calm, to make a show of authority—at least of indifference.”

Ian Fleming · On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 1963 · Primary source

“Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”

Winston Churchill · Never give in, never, 1941 · Primary source

“Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.”

W. H. Murray · The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951 · Primary source

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“As in a game of cards, so in the game of life, we must play what is dealt to us, and the glory consists, not so much in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.”

Josh Billings · Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things, 1868 · Primary source

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Think in the morning, act in the noon, eat in the evening, sleep in the night.”

William Blake · The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790 · Primary source

“If anything, I now believe even more strongly that reliability is essential for progress in life and while quantum mechanics is unlearnable for a vast majority, reliability can be learned to great advantage by almost anyone.”

Charlie Munger · Poor Charlie’s Almanack, 2005 · Primary source

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.”

T. E. Lawrence · Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926 · Primary source

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933 · Primary source

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Helen Keller · The Open Door, 1957 · Primary source

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

Ernest Hemingway · A Man’s Credo, 1963 · Primary source

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

Steve Jobs · Stanford Commencement Address, 2005 · Primary source

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“He that falls in love with himself, will have no rivals.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“That is just it, work is my element; I was born and made for it. I have found the limits of my legs; I have found the limits of my eyes; but I have never been able to find the limits of my labour.”

Napoleon Bonaparte · The Memorial of Saint Helena, 1824 · Secondary source

“Diligence overcomes difficulties, sloth makes them.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.”

Amelia Earhart · 20 Hrs. 40 Min., 1928 · Primary source

“A life which does not go into action is a failure.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.”

Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825 · Primary source

“The man who is good at making an excuse, is seldom good at any thing else.”

Benjamin Franklin · Liber Facetiarum: Being a Collection of Curious and Interesting Anecdotes, 1809 · Secondary source

“Little strokes fell great oaks.”

Benjamin Franklin · The Way to Wealth, 1758 · Primary source

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.”

Amelia Earhart · Last Flight, 1937 · Primary source

“The time to worry is three months before a flight. Decide then whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying. To worry is to add another hazard. It retards reactions, makes one unfit. Hamlet would have been a bad aviator. He worried too much.”

Amelia Earhart · Last Flight, 1937 · Primary source

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“But I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless.”

Helen Keller · Optimism, 1903 · Primary source

“I may not be as strong as I think. But I know many tricks and I have resolution.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Old Man and the Sea, 1952 · Primary source

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal behind it.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“Don’t think to hunt two hares with one dog.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Let me tell you the secret that led me to my success. My only strength is my tenacity.”

Louis Pasteur · Oeuvres de Pasteur, 1922 · Primary source

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”

Winston Churchill · The Second World War, 1948-1953 · Primary source

“Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.”

Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825 · Primary source

“Never say ‘no’ to adventures.”

Ian Fleming · Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, 1964 · Primary source

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt · Citizenship in a Republic, 1910 · Primary source

“Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Wealth, 1860 · Primary source

“I fight for my corner. I leave when the pub closes.”

Winston Churchill · Churchill is Dead at 90; The World Mourns Him; State Funeral Saturday, 1965 · Secondary source

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

Helen Keller · The Story of My Life, 1903 · Primary source

“The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Take things always by their smooth handle.”

Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825 · Primary source

“Grace under pressure.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Artist’s Reward, 1929 · Secondary source

“Sloth (like rust) consumes faster than labor wears. The used key is always bright.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“One today is worth two tomorrows.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“The courage, the unconquerable grit and stamina of our people, showed itself from the very outset. Without that all would have failed. Upon that rock, all stood unshakable.”

Winston Churchill · You do your worst—and we will do our best, 1941 · Primary source

“No man ever was glorious who was not laborious.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Well done is twice done.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Well done is better than well said.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“No gains without pains.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“If you have time don’t wait for time.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day, and at the end of the day—if you live long enough—like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.”

Charlie Munger · Poor Charlie’s Almanack, 2005 · Primary source

“For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe, the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business by night.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.”

Winston Churchill · The Story of the Malakand Field Force, 1898 · Primary source

“We never repent of having eaten too little.”

Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825 · Primary source

“I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Beauty and folly are old companions.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“As pride increases, fortune declines.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“All things are easy to industry, all things difficult to sloth.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“You may delay, but time will not.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“If you’d have a servant that you like, serve yourself.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Haste makes waste.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“He that never eats too much, will never be lazy.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“The bird that sits, is easily shot.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“No man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Compensation, 1841 · Primary source

“The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Harvard Divinity School Address, 1838 · Primary source

“The cat in gloves catches no mice.”

Benjamin Franklin · The Way to Wealth, 1758 · Primary source

“Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience under great offences, and they cannot hurt your feelings.”

Leonardo da Vinci · The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, 1888 · Primary source

“Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Old Man and the Sea, 1952 · Primary source

“Drunkenness, that worst of evils, makes some men fools, some beasts, some devils.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“The proud hate pride—in others.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Fools multiply folly.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Have you something to do tomorrow; do it today.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today.”

Benjamin Franklin · The Way to Wealth, 1758 · Primary source

“Time enough always proves little enough.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.”

Richard Feynman · Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, 1985 · Primary source

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Old Man and the Sea, 1952 · Primary source

“For my greatest skill has been to want but little.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“I have no dress except the one I wear. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one [a wedding dress], please let it be practical and dark, so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot the flies come not.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“’Tis a shame that your family is an honor to you! You ought to be an honor to your family.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“If you fail at the large things it means you have not large ambitions. Concentration, focus—that is all. The aptitudes come, the tools forge themselves. ‘Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world’—but only if the desire to move the world is there.”

Ian Fleming · Dr. No, 1958 · Primary source

“I couldn’t afford luxuries like embarrassment.”

Andrew S. Grove · Swimming Across, 2001 · Primary source

“Be always ashamed to catch thyself idle.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Take this remark from Richard, poor and lame, whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Thomas Edison · Professor gets Many Autographs: Edison, Other Great Men Respond, 1932 · Secondary source

“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825 · Primary source

“Let every new year find you a better man.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Compensation, 1841 · Primary source

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“A life of leisure, and a life of laziness, are two things.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“’'Tis easier to suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all that follow it.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“You will never reach your destination if you stop to shy [throw] stones at every dog that barks.”

Winston Churchill · Shy a stone at every dog, 1923 · Primary source

“Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

Mario Andretti · Driving With Mario Andretti, Who at 76, Still Refuses to Slow Down, 2016 · Secondary source

“He was a secret agent, and still alive thanks to his exact attention to the detail of his profession.”

Ian Fleming · Casino Royale, 1953 · Primary source

“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Raise your standards as high as you can live with, avoid wasting your time on routine problems, and always try to work as closely as possible at the boundary of your abilities. Do this because it is the only way of discovering how that boundary should be moved forward.”

Edsger Dijkstra · Advice to a Young Scientist, c. 1989 · Primary source

“My life is for itself and not for a spectacle.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.”

William Blake · The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790 · Primary source

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Steve Jobs · Stanford Commencement Address, 2005 · Primary source

“Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.”

Helen Keller · The Story of My Life, 1903 · Primary source

“When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.”

Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825 · Primary source

“You never get real adventures without a bit of risk somewhere.”

Ian Fleming · Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, 1964 · Primary source

“Bond didn’t defend the practice. He simply maintained that the more effort and ingenuity you put into gambling, the more you took out.”

Ian Fleming · Casino Royale, 1953 · Primary source

“Although he had not got to bed until two, Bond walked into his headquarters punctually at ten the next morning.”

Ian Fleming · Moonraker, 1955 · Primary source

“Insist on yourself; never imitate.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Thomas Edison · No reliable source

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life and the procedure. The process is its own reward.”

Amelia Earhart · No reliable source

“The most effective way to do it is to do it.”

Amelia Earhart · No reliable source

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Eleanor Roosevelt · No reliable source

“Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill · No reliable source

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… Unless you fail to make the turn.”

Helen Keller · No reliable source

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn’t be done.”

Amelia Earhart · No reliable source

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough.”

Helen Keller · No reliable source

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Winston Churchill · No reliable source

“Above all, he liked it that everything was one’s own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared.”

Ian Fleming · Casino Royale, 1953 · Primary source

“The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth.”

Albert Einstein · Ideas and Opinions , 1954 · Primary source

Explore the category

Character

13 subcategories · 28 authors · 48 works · 275 themes · 307 tags
Authors
Amelia Earhart American aviation pioneerBenjamin Franklin American statesmanWinston Churchill British prime minister
Works
20 Hrs. 40 Min. Amelia Earhart · 1928A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee · 1934-1961Poor Richard’s Almanack Benjamin Franklin · 1732-1758
Themes
Developing one’s own capacitiesPersistence through difficultyFollowing one’s own path
Tags
PerseveranceSelf-relianceResilienceIndependence
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