Alberto Moravia Quotes

Every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.

Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also - if this isn't too grand a word - our tragedy.

…I'm sorry, and a little dissatisfied as well. Miss Stacy told me long ago that by the time I was twenty my character would be formed, for good or evil. I don't feel that it's what it should be. It's full of flaws.' 'So's everybody's,' said Aunt Jamesina cheerfully. 'Mine's cracked in a hundred places. Your Miss Stacy likely meant that when you are twenty your character would have got its permanent bent in one direction or 'tother, and would go on developing in that line.

True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character.

Worthy character is best forged from a life of consistent, correct choices centered in the teachings of the Master.

Intellectual activity is a danger to the building of character.

Character is the result of hundreds and hundreds of choices you make that gradually turn who you are, at any given moment, into who you want to be.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage, and determination.

Character is a perfectly educated will.

We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.

Habits change into character.

If you do not know the laws of right conduct, you cannot form your character.

Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

It does us no harm to look over our past shortcomings and plan to improve our characters and actions in the coming year

Our intellectual development in the field of science has outstripped our human development in the field of character.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

All your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be in vain, if at the same time you do not build your character, and attain mastery over your thoughts and actions.

Character is never built in a classroom; it is built in the circumstances of life.

You cannot build up a character in a solitude; you need a formed character to stand a solitude.

Character is not the enemy of self-expression and personal freedom, it is their necessary precondition.

Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish this desired end.

Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character.

What the expression is intended to mean, I think, is that there is a better and a worse element in the character of each individual, and that when the naturally better element controls the worse then the man is said to be "master of himself", as a term of praise. But when - as a result of bad upbringing or bad company one s better element is overpowered by the numerical superiority of one s worse impulses, then one is criticized for not being master of oneself and for lack of self control.

The greatest work in all the world is the building of men and women of character. Without character there is not much that is worthwhile.

Anyone has outside influences. They are the results of the cosmic roll of the dice: this person is born Aragon the Ranger, this person is born a prisoner in North Korea, this person is born Carlos the Dwarf. Some of these things are out of our control, but that doesn't mean that they can't be changed. A character, just like a person in real life, is a summation of her actions and feelings. Our actions and emotions are not performed against nothing, they do not arise from dust, we are in constant friction, and/or flow with our surroundings.