CHARACTER CHARACTER
Il ne se deboutonna jamais.
He never unbuttons himself.
Udum et molle lutum es: nunc, nunc properandus et acri
Fingendus sine fine rota.
Thou art moist and soft clay; thou must instantly be shaped by the glowing wheel. Persius—Satires. III. 23.
Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta
supellex.
Retire within thyself, and thou will discover
how small a stock is there.
Persius. Satires. IV. 52.
Grand, gloomy and peculiar, he sat upon
the throne, a sceptred hermit, wrapped in the
solitude of his awful originality.
Charges Phillips—^Character of Napoleon I.
| author =
| work =
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| note =
| topic = Character
| page = 103
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{{Hoyt quote
| num = 5
| text = Optimum et emendatissimum existimo, qui
ceteris ita ignoscit, tanquam ipse quotidie
peccet; ita peccatis abstinet, tanquam nemini
ignoscat.
The highest of characters, in my estimation,
is his, who is as ready to pardon the moral
errors of mankind, as if he were every day
guilty of some himself; and at the same time
as cautious of committing a fault as if he never
forgave one.
Punt the Younger—Epistles. VIII. 22
Good-humor only teaches charms to last,
Still makes new conquests and maintains the
past.
| author = Pope
| work = Epistle to Miss Blount. With the Works
of Voiture.
Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild;
In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child.
| author = Pope
| work = Epitaph XI.
'Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn ; •
A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn :
A Judge is just, a Chanc'llor juster still;
A Gownman learn'd; a Bishop what you will;
Wise if a minister; but if a King,
More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'rything.
| author = Pope
| work = Moral Essays. Ep. I. Pt. II.
With too much Quickness ever to be taught;
With too much Thinking to have common
Thought.
| author = Pope
| work = Moral Essays. Ep. II. L. 97.
from loveless youth to unrespected age,
No passion gratified, except her rage,
So much the fury still outran the wit,
That pleasure miss'd her, and the scandal hit.
In men we various ruling passions find;
In women two almost divide the kind ;
Those only fixed, they first or last obey,
The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.
| author = Pope
| work = Moral Essays. Ep. II. L. 207.
Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will
trust,
Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.
| author = Pope
| work = Prologue to Satires. L. 332.
What then remains, but well our power to use,
And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose?
And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail,
When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding
fail.
| author = Pope
| work = Rape of the Lock. Canto V. L. 29.
li
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the
soul.
| author = Pope
| work = Rape of the Lock. Canto V. L. 34.
No man's defects sought they to know;
So never made themselves a foe.
No man's good deeds did they commend;
So never rais'd themselves a friend.
Prior—Epitaph.
So much his courage and his mercy strive,
He wounds to cure, and conquers to forgive.
Prior—Ode in Imitation of Horace.
| place = Bk. III. Ode II.
He that sweareth
Till no man trust him.
He that lieth
Till no man believe him;
He that borroweth
Till no man will lend him ;
Let him go where
No man knoweth him.
Hugh Rhodes—Cautions.
Nie zeichnet der Mensch den eignen Charakter scharfer als in seiner Manier, einen Fremden
zu zeichnen.
A man never shows his own character
so plainly as by his manner of portraying
another's.
Jean Paul Richter—Titan. Zykel 110.
Devout yet cheerful, active yet resigned.
Rogers—Pleasures of Memory.
Was never eie did see that face,
Was never eare did heare that tong,
Was never minde did minde his grace,
That ever thought the travell long,
But eies and eares and ev'ry thought
Were with his sweete perfections caught.
Mathew Royden—An Elegie. On the Death
of Sir Philip Sidney.
It is of the utmost importance that a nation
should have a correct standard by which to
weigh the character of its rulers.
Lord John Russell—Introduction to the 3rd
Vol. of the Correspondence of the Duke of
Bedford.
Da krabbeln sie num, wie die Ratten auf
der Keule des Hercules.
They [the present generation] are like rats
crawling about the club of Hercules.
Schiller—Die Rduber. I. 2.
