Plutarch Quotes

Not on the stage alone, in the world also, a man's real character comes out best in his asides.

In tough times, that's when you see true colours and personality.

We must at times search our own souls and discover what we really are. Our real character, much as we would wish, cannot be hidden.

We cannot judge either of the feelings or of the characters of men with perfect accuracy from their actions or their appearance in public; it is from their careless conversations, their half-finished sentences, that we may hope with the greatest probability of success to discover their real characters.

If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Watch a man do his most common actions.

But what man does out of despair, is not necessarily a key to his character. I have always thought that the real key is in that which he seeks for his enjoyment.

Without reflecting that this is the only moment in which you can study character," said the count; "on the steps of the scaffold death tears off the mask that has been worn through life, and the real visage is disclosed.

All these people who say success changes people; well, no, it just magnifies what's there.

Circumstances don't make a person; they reveal him or her.

Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.

In our leisure we reveal what kind of people we are.

It is in the relaxation of security; it is in the expansion of prosperity; it is in the hour of dilatation of the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure, that the real character of men is discerned.

Nothing discloses real character like the use of power.

It's not the easy things that let you get to know a person.

What someone is, begins to be revealed when his talent abates, when he stops showing us what he can do.

Money doesn't change you; it reveals who you are when you no longer have to be nice.

There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken.

One never gets to know a person's character better than by watching his behavior during decisive moments.... It is always only danger which forces the most deeply hidden strengths and abilities of a human being to come forth.

More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

Man shows his character best in trifles.

Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.

The real revelation of a player's character is not in his social life but in how he plays. In my social life I can hide my real personality.

...it is how a person goes about quenching his desires or living with them unrequited that the readers get a glimpse of his true character.