“Society swarmed with exaggerated characters; it contained little else.

Often this eccentricity bore all the marks of strength; perhaps it was actual exuberance of force, a birthmark of genius. Boston thought so. The Bostonian called it national character — native vigor — robustness — honesty — courage. He respected and feared it.”

— Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

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Henry Adams 311

journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838–1918

Alan O. Ebenstein (1959) American political scientist, educator and author

Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek (2003)

“He had a curiously womanish face, and, in direct contradiction to his real character, there seemed to be little strength in it.”

Isa Bowman (1874–1958) British actress

Page 9.
The Story of Lewis Carroll (1899)

“We have to keep company with supposedly bad characters if we are to survive and not succumb to mental atrophy. People of good character, so called, are the ones who end up boring us to death.”

Thomas Bernhard book Extinction

Source: Extinction

“Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men. The force of passion is balanced by the force of interest.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
Context: Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men. The force of passion is balanced by the force of interest. An insatiable appetite for glory leads to sacrifice and death, but innate instinct leads to self-preservation and life. A nation that neglects either of these forces perishes. They must be steered together, like a pair of carriage horses.

“If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

K 46
Variant translation: A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)

“Remember, however, before all else, to strip things of all that disturbs and confuses, and to see what each is at bottom; you will then comprehend that they contain nothing fearful except the actual fear.”
Illud autem ante omnia memento, demere rebus tumultum ac videre quid in quaque re sit: scies nihil esse in istis terribile nisi ipsum timorem.

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

Alternate translation: You will understand that there is nothing dreadful in this except fear itself. (translator unknown).
Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Line 12