Arthur Helps Quotes

Flashy people aren't everything, you know. Even when they have frizzled hair.

I think you can do something bad, and it doesn't make you a bad person. We are not defined by any one choice. We are the sum of our experiences, and we can make a bad choice and turn around and do better.

We're kind of defined by our mistakes.

Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions.

In public life as in private life, a man of the very highest repute will occasionally go wrong..

People think we're machines; they don't realise that behind a bad run, there's almost always a personal problem, some family issue. You have feelings; you make mistakes. You're a person.

When I contemplate the natural dignity of man; when I feel (for Nature has not been kind enough to me to blunt my feelings) for the honor and happiness of its character, I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools, and can scarcely avoid disgust at those who are thus imposed upon.

Would there not be the greatest reason to apprehend, that error in the first sentence would be the parent of error in the second sentence? That the strong bias of one decision would be apt to overrule the influence of any new lights, which might be brought to vary the complexion of another decision? Those, who know any thing of human nature, will not hesitate to answer these questions in the affirmative.

Without my attempts in natural science, I should never have learned to know mankind such as it is. In nothing else can we so closely approach pure contemplation and thought, so closely observe the errors of the senses and of the understanding, the weak and strong points of character.

It is an error common to many to take the character of mankind from the worst and basest amongst them; whereas, as an excellent writer has observed, nothing should be esteemed as characteristical, of a species but what is to be found amongst the best and the most perfect individuals of that species.

Imperfections create character.

It was a style not of perfection, but warmth. Even mistakes had a good feeling about them

Our passions are ourselves.

It is only an error of judgment to make a mistake, but it argues an infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered.

We are all basically the same human beings, who seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. Everybody is my peer group. Your feeling "I am of no value" is wrong. Absolutely wrong.

Everywhere man blames nature and fate, yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character, and passions, his mistakes, and weaknesses."--Democritus An Abundance of Katherines---John Green

Error is to be pitied and pardoned: it is the weakness of human nature. But vice is a foul blemish, not pardonable in any character.

Just because you have superpowers, that doesn't mean your love life would be perfect. I don't think superpowers automatically means there won't be any personality problems, family problems or even money problems. I just tried to write characters who are human beings who also have superpowers.

The ideal of character always runs beyond the attainment.

With acting, I get to escape into this character and embody it. With music it's like, "Hey guys, this is my diary, here's all my feelings."

Nature has endowed each of us with a capacity for kindly feelings: let us not squander them on others.

Human character evermore publishes itself. The most fugitive deed and word, the intimated purpose, express character.

To err is common to all mankind, but having erred he is no longer reckless nor unblest who haven fallen into evil seeks a cure, nor remains unmoved.

The fact is, the king was a good deal more than a king, he was a man; and when a man is a man, you can't knock it out of him.