Edward Gibbon Quotes

Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them

We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.

Nature in causing reason and the passions to be born at one and the same time apparently wished by the latter gift to distract man from the evil she had done him by the former, and by only permitting him to live for a few years after the loss of his passions seems to show her pity by early deliverance from a life that reduces him to reason as his sole resource.

The history of mankind is his character.

Human character is smaller now, people don't have durable passions; they've replaced passions with excitement.

Illusion is sometimes all that keeps us sane." - Anita

tis true that tho' People can transcend their Characters in Times of Tranquillity, they can ne'er do so in Times of Tumult.

Wherefore did he [God] create passions within us, pleasures round about us, but that these rightly tempered are the very ingredients of virtue?

Our passions are ourselves.

And people are just people, They shouldn't make you nervous. The world is everlasting, It's coming and it's going.

Whether I'm down or whether things are great, I try to stay the same person all the time.

I push myself as hard as I can. Sometimes that can be painful and stressful but inthe end it's worth the price... I like to play characters that I can draw from in my own life. I've invested so much of my life into my work that I almost don't have any choice.

Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.

Life without emotions is like an engine without fuel.

Such is the active power of good temperament! Great sweetness of temper neutralizes such vast amounts of acid.

Writers cannot choose their own mood: with them it is not always hide-tide, nor --thank Heaven!--always Storm.

If you're fighting with emotion instead of structure... it's always going to be a mistake.

The more adept we become at cultivating an altruistic attitude, the happier we will feel and the more comfortable will be the atmosphere around us. But if our emotions fluctuate wildly and we easily give in to hatred and jealousy, even our friends will avoid us. So even for people with no spiritual beliefs, it is important to have a peaceful mind.

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

The health of the soul is something we can be no more sure of than that of the body; and though a man may seem far from the passions, yet he is in as much danger of falling into them as one in a perfect state of health of having a fit of sickness.

After each creative act one has to be sustained by one's strength of character, by a moral sense, by I don't know what, lest one tumble.

When dealing with people, let us remember that we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity. ...Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.

Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed.

The world is always childish, and with each new gewgaw of a revolution or new constitution that it finds, thinks it shall never cry any more.

To me it comes naturally, the peaks and valleys, sadness with happiness. I've definitely had periods, maybe, where I haven't been happy. Whether it's from a breakup or the good, old-fashioned blues - but I wouldn't say clinically depressed.