William James Quotes

I'm a 'specist.' I hate the human race. Of course, therefore, I hate myself the most, because I am the least of the human race. I'm the product of 6 million years of evolution? Come on, man.

What Darwin was too polite to say, my friends, is that we came to rule the Earth not because we were the smartest, or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle.

Without the errors which lie in the assumption of morality, man would have remained an animal.

The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.

Most portraits are lies. People are rarely what they appear to be, especially in front of a camera. You might know me your entire lifetime and never reveal yourself to me. To interpret wrinkles as character is insult not insight.

Three or four million heads of households don't turn into tramps and cheats overnight, nor do they lose the habits and standards of a lifetime... They don't drink any more than the rest of us, they don't lie any more, they're no lazier than the rest of us.... An eighth or a tenth of the earning population does not change its character which has been generations in the molding, or, if such a change actually occurs, we can scarcely charge it up to personal sin.

We were all born of flesh, in a flare of pain. We do not remember the red roots whence we rose, but we know that we rose and walked, that after a while we shall lie down again.

Good and evil lie close together. Seek no artistic unity in character.

To feel our character, our personality, and our personal, hard-won history fade from being is to be exposed to whatever lies beneath these comforting, operational conveniences. What remains when the conscious and functioning self has been erased is mankind's fundamental condition – irrational, violent, guilt-wracked, despairing, and mad.

My take on people and on the characters I play in Transsiberian, the role you're looking for, is that everybody is more than one thing. We're many things, all of us, and there are times when we are capable of great levity and jolliness and then there are times when the opposite is true.

It is to be lamented that great characters are seldom without a blot.

Though a censure lies against those who are poor and proud, yet is Pride sooner to be forgiven in a poor person than in a rich one; since in the latter it is insult and arrogance; in the former, it may be a defense against temptations to dishonesty; and, if manifested on proper occasions, may indicate a natural bravery of mind, which the frowns of fortune cannot depress.

With the man in the woman, and the woman in the man. In the blood of Eden lie the woman and the man.

There's that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angel. Actually man is in transit between brute and God.

There is no stronger test of a person's character than power and authority, exciting as they do every passion, and discovering every latent vice.

Nothing lies on our hands with such uneasiness as time. Wretched and thoughtless creatures! In the only place where covetousness were a virtue we turn prodigals.

None of our hearts are pure, we always have mixed motives. Are self deceivers, but the worst of all Deceits is to murmur 'Lord, I am not worthy' And, lying easy, turn your face to the wall.

Temperament lies behind mood; behind will, lies the fate of character. Then behind both, the influence of family the tyranny of culture; and finally the power of climate and environment; and we are free, only to the extent we rise above these.

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.

Man is bound to lie about himself

Whoever says he is without sin is a liar or is blind.

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

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.

Darwinian man, though well-behaved, at best is only a monkey shaved.