Quotes about personality
page 23
“A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.”
As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 412
Variant: You have everything but one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or else - he never dares cut the rope and be free.
Source: Zorba the Greek
Source: Horns
Variant: Love isn't finding a perfect person. It's seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
Source: To Love and Be Loved
Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding
"Introductory Epistle : Argument of the Third Dialogue"
On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584)
Context: After it hath been seen how the obstinate and the ignorant of evil disposition are accustomed to dispute, it will further be shewn how disputes are wont to conclude; although others are so wary that without losing their composure, but with a sneer, a smile, a certain discreet malice, that which they have not succeeded in proving by argument — nor indeed can it be understood by themselves — nevertheless by these tricks of courteous disdain they pretend to have proven, endeavouring not only to conceal their own patently obvious ignorance but to cast it on to the back of their adversary. For they dispute not in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear the more learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons should be avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience.
Variant translation:
It is very important to give advice to a man to help him mend his ways. It is a compassionate and important duty. However, it is extremely difficult to comprehend how this advice should be given. It is easy to recognise the good and bad points in others. Generally it is considered a kindness in helping people with things they hate or find difficult to say. However, one impracticality is that if people do not take in this advice they will think that there is nothing they should change. The same applies when we try to create shame in others by speaking badly of them. It seems outwardly that we are just complaining about them. One must get to know the person in question. Keep after him and get him to put his trust in you. Find out what interests he has. When you write to him or before you part company, you should express concrete examples of your own faults and get him to recall to mind whether or not he has the same problems. Also positively praise his qualities. It is important that he takes in your comments like a man thirsting for water. It is difficult to give such advice. We cannot easily correct our defects and weak points as they are dyed deeply within us. I have had bitter experience of this.
Hagakure (c. 1716)
Source: Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
Context: To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not. One must become close with him and make sure that he continually trusts one's word. Approaching subjects that are dear to him, seek the best way to speak and to be well understood.
Context: To give a person one's opinion and correct his faults is an important thing. It is compassionate and comes first in matters of service. But the way of doing this is extremely difficult. To discover the good and bad points of a person is an easy thing, and to give an opinion concerning them is easy, too. For the most part, people think that they are being kind by saying the things that others find distasteful or difficult to say. But if it is not received well, they think that there is nothing more to be done. This is completely worthless. It is the same as bringing shame to a person by slandering him. It is nothing more than getting it off one's chest.
To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not. One must become close with him and make sure that he continually trusts one's word. Approaching subjects that are dear to him, seek the best way to speak and to be well understood. Judge the occasion, and determine whether it is better by letter or at the time of leave-taking. Praise his good points and use every device to encourage him, perhaps by talking about one's own faults without touching on his, but so that they will occur to him. Have him receive this in the way that a man would drink water when his throat is dry, and it will be an opinion that will correct faults.
This is extremely difficult. If a person's fault is a habit of some years prior, by and large it won't be remedied. I have had this experience myself. To be intimate with all one's comrades, correcting each other's faults, and being of one mind to be of use to the master is the great compassion of a retainer. By bringing shame to a person, how could one expect to make him a better man?
“You know how I know she's your most important person? You pick her every time.”
Source: P.S. I Still Love You
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“Everyone winds up kissing the wrong person goodnight.”
Variant: Everybody winds up kissing the wrong person goodnight.
Source: The Rubadub Mystery
“When you see a small change in your life it means its a huge change in personality and your trait”
Source: Lush
“One person of integrity can make a difference.”
Source: Tomorrow, When the War Began
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. III: Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-Being
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Source: Almost Perfect
“Show me a person who hasn´t known any sorrow and I´ll show you a superficial.”
Source: A Streetcar Named Desire
Source: The Medusa Plot
“Only after a person has their heart broken does the world appear as it truly is.”
Source: Perfected Sinfulness
Source: Magic Slays
“You are a person and then you cease to be a person, and a cadaver takes your place.”
Source: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
“Every two people cause and intersection. Every person alters the world.”
Source: How They Met, and Other Stories
Source: Cold Comfort Farm
“There is, incidently, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person.”
Variant: There is, incidentally, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person.
“A ghastly attempt at a smile, sure to send any normal person to a therapist.”
Source: Magic Burns
Source: The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs Is a Little Perspective
“Can a person steal happiness? Or is just another internal, infernal human trick?”
Source: The Book Thief
“How foolish to yearn to ask the very person who'd caused the pain to heal it”
Source: A Kingdom of Dreams
“You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.”
Source: Sloppy Firsts
Source: Miss Lonelyhearts and A Cool Million
“Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught,”
In debate http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1952/nov/04/debate-on-the-address in the House of Commons, 4 Nov 1952
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Variant: Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Context: Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught, but I shall not attempt to foreshadow the proposals which will be brought before the House tomorrow. Today it will be sufficient and appropriate to deal with the obvious difficulties and confusion of the situation as we found it on taking office.
“Sometimes being a good mother gets in the way of being a good person.”
Source: A Woman of Independent Means
“You can't really get to know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them.”
Pt. 2, ch. 31
Jean Louise (Scout) Finch
Variant: Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Context: Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.
“People were just too complex to reduce to simple personality traits.”
Source: The Final Empire
Pt. 1, ch. 11
Atticus Finch
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
“Protons give an atom its identity, electrons its personality.”
Source: A Short History of Nearly Everything
“Sometimes it seems safer to hold it all in, where the only person who can judge is yourself.”
Variant: It seemed safer to hold it in, where the only one who could judge was me.
Source: Just Listen
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 5.
Context: I resolved passionately to reach the spiritual causes of phenomena, and to dominate the material world which I detested by their means. I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.
17 min 40 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Who Speaks for Earth? [Episode 13]
“Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated.”
