Quotes about personality
page 5

“A skeptic can be evaluated through their approach when they doubt an issue; at one end of the spectrum resides the person who always seeks the truth and enjoys investigative research; at the other end, is the naysayer and contrarian, always poised for an argumentative debate.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1998

Truth

“There seems to be some problem about my identity. But no one can find it, because it’s not there—I have lost all interest in having a self. Being a person has always meant getting blamed for it.”

Rachel Cusk (1967) British writer

On abandoning being a memoirist in “Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/07/rachel-cusk-gut-renovates-the-novel in the New Yorker (Aug 2017)

Problem, Self-confidence

“I think success is when you are confronted with utter defeat of your world, your intimacy, your ideas, your public picture, your heritage, your previous achievements. When in one moment it looks like there is one, and nothing that helps you. When almost every look is also a look of doubt, when you yourself put everything under the question mark. When all the illusions about yourself fall, illusions about your surroundings, about people, about faith and religion, about flags, about objects of love and how much are you in love…and then, in that moment of personal and private holocaust, of that ocean of pain looking like all inner strength faded away, and there is no right for excuses about your existence. When at that moment you rise and keep moving forward, you start and you lead a creative and productive life. Yes, I think that is objective strength and power.”

Alfred Freddy Krupa (1971) Croatian contemporary painter, master draughtsman, book artist and art teacher, the pioneer of the New Ink Art m…

Overcoming a Personal Holocaust, Alfred Freddy Krupa (in the article by Ante Vranković), Life As A Human (Canada), 2019
2010s

Love, Life, Pain, People

“So the only other reason you should ever have a conversation, or be friends, with anyone on the left is — and not even be friends — if you are in public in front of a large audience, and then your goal is to humiliate them as badly as possible. That is the goal of the conversation, the goal is not to convince the person, the goal is not to make friends with that person.”

Ben Shapiro (1984) American journalist and attorney

Speech to Young America's Foundation at Reagan Ranch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZRuwjvAMuQ, 2015

Making love

“President Obama is, however, a man who embodies all the personal characteristics of a fascist leader, right down to the arrogant chin-up head tilt he utilizes when waiting for applause. He sees democracy as a filthy process that can be cured only by the centralized power of bureaucrats. He sees his presidency as a Hegelian synthesis marking the end of political conflict. He sees himself as embodiment of the collective will. No president should speak in these terms — not in a representative republic. Obama does it habitually.”

Ben Shapiro (1984) American journalist and attorney

2010-02-03
Obama's Philosophically Fascist State of the Union Address
Townhall.com
https://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2010/02/03/obamas-philosophically-fascist-state-of-the-union-address-n1331445

Democracy, Waiting

“In fact, the most difficult thing for a director like me is to find the right people; it is enough to put in a group a man or a woman or a wrong person that everything is compromised.”

Rocco Siffredi (1964) Italian pornographic actor, director, producer and entrepreneur

Interview by Andrea Di Marcantonio

People

“That is the devilish thing about poverty, the ever-recurrent thing - loneliness. Day after day with never an intelligent person to talk to; night after night back to your godless room, always alone. Perhaps it sounds rather fun if you are rich and sought-after; but how different it is when you do it from necessity!”

George Orwell book Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Source: Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), Ch. 4

Intelligence, Loneliness, Night

“A man of many parts - a learned and deeply religious person, a very fine and powerful actor who swayed millions of people, a orator and above all, a man of the masses.”

N. T. Rama Rao (1923–1996) Indian actor and Andhra Pradesh former chief minister

By Narasimha Rao in "Obituary: N. T. Rama Rao".
About NTR

People, Learning, Parting

“Minister Dilma Rousseff has a strong personality, a male side in the way in which she stamps her management.”

Dilma Rousseff (1947) 36th President of Brazil

Gilberto Gil, Minister of Culture (2003–2008). IstoeÉ magazine, December 28, 2005.

Way, Strong

“Was there no sword, nothing with which to batter down these walls, this protection, this begetting of children and living behind curtains, and becoming daily more involved and committed, with books and pictures? Better burn one’s life out like Louis, desiring perfection; or like Rhoda leave us, flying past us to the desert; or choose one out of millions and one only like Neville; better be like Susan and love and hate the heat of the sun or the frost-bitten grass; or be like Jinny, honest, an animal. All had their rapture; their common feeling with death; something that stood them in stead. Thus I visited each of my friends in turn, trying, with fumbling fingers, to prise open their locked caskets. I went from one to the other holding my sorrow — no, not my sorrow but the incomprehensible nature of this our life — for their inspection. Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends, I to my own heart, I to seek among phrases and fragments something unbroken — I to whom there is not beauty enough in moon or tree; to whom the touch of one person with another is all, yet who cannot grasp even that, who am so imperfect, so weak, so unspeakably lonely. There I sat.”

Virginia Woolf book The Waves

Bernard, section IX
The Waves (1931)

Love, Life, Death, Hate

“There’s nothing more arduous than traversing a lifelong struggle with the betrayal of the person you love, who expects to reach a compromise. Negotiation under these circumstances requires one to forfeit their dignity which can never be salvaged.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1987

Love, Making love, Betrayal

“I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice. We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity. I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the centre of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal. We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment.”

Joaquin Phoenix (1974) American actor, music video director, producer, musician, and social activist

"Joaquin Phoenix's Oscars speech in full: 'We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby'" https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/10/joaquin-phoenixs-oscars-speech-in-full, The Guardian (February 10, 2020).

People, World, Fear, Feeling

“I'd rather ten guilty persons should escape, than one innocent should suffer.”

Julius Caesar (-100–-44 BC) Roman politician and general

Attributed by Edward Seymour in 1696 during the parliamentary proceedings against John Fenwick ( "I am of the same opinion with the Roman, who, in the case of Catiline, declared, he had rather ten guilty persons should escape, than one innocent should suffer" http://books.google.com/books?id=dIM-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA565), to which Lieutenant General Harry Mordaunt replied "The worthy member who spoke last seems to have forgot, that the Roman who made that declaration was suspected of being a conspirator himself" (Caesar was the only one who spoke in the Senate against executing Catiline's co-conspirators and was indeed suspected by some to be involved in the plot). However, the Caesar's corresponding speech as transmitted by Sallust http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Sallust/Bellum_Catilinae*.html#51 contains no such phrase, even though it appears to be somewhat similar in spirit ("Whatever befalls these prisoners will be well deserved; but you, Fathers of the Senate, are called upon to consider how your action will affect other criminals. All bad precedents have originated in cases which were good; but when the control of the government falls into the hands of men who are incompetent or bad, your new precedent is transferred from those who well deserve and merit such punishment to the undeserving and blameless.") The first person to undoubtedly utter such a dictum was in fact John Fortescue ("It is better to allow twenty criminals to mercifully avoid death than to unjustly condemn one innocent person"). It should also be noted that whether the exchange between Seymour and Mordaunt even happened is itself not clearly established http://books.google.com/books?id=IitDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA694. Misattributed

Suffering

“The pursuit of success is marked by numerous characteristics; including, perseverance, commitment, education, and wisdom, to name a few. The road to failure can also be described with countless personality traits, including, unreliable, indolence, ignorance, and ineptitude.
However, during my thirty years as an administrator I have witnessed the most significant rationale for failure that cannot be described in a single word. It is a characteristic some people possess, often referred to by psychologists as the, need-to-be-liked-syndrome. Unfortunately, for some, their existence is predicated upon pleasing others, and seeking approval and recognition. They have become an inmate or prisoner to the thoughts and opinions of others.
In other words, they lack self-value, and therefore must receive it from others. When you do not value yourself, then it will be difficult to obtain joy and contentment in one’s life. Remember; you have worth and value.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1997

Life, Wisdom, People, Education

“One who possesses arrogance as a dominant personality trait, rarely has close friends.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1989

“I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it?”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Life

“In order to be happy oneself it is necessary to make at least one other person happy.”

Theodor Reik (1888–1969) austrian-american psychoanalytist

Happiness, Wise, love

“It all comes down to the last person you think of at night, that's where the heart is.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Original: Tutto si riduce all'ultima persona a cui pensi la notte, è lì che si trova il cuore.
Source: In Una sorcia bianca – nella raccolta Storie di ordinaria follia

Thinking, Heart, Night

“Every person might not be a teacher, yet has no right not to be an educator, for we are talking about the importance of moral education.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Education, Teachers

“Self-realization determines the immortality of a person.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“Personality implies a self-realizing human.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“I am afraid to die sometimes, but God is the one to decide when a person dies. I want to live to the fullest until then.”

Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953–2001) Afghan military leader

As quoted in Massoud's Smile https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBR8V8YWEAI9OWu?format=jpg, by Hiromi Nagakura

God

“Money is only one of the tools of survival; it stands useless if it can’t save people’s lives. After all, no man is an island. I always help where and wherever I can since my individual personal survival is only limited to a very narrow scope of basic needs.”

Hamis Kiggundu (1984) Ugandan business magnate, Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author

Quoted when donating 15,000 COVID-19 Vaccine doses to the government of Uganda.
2020s
Source: [2021-03-10, Tycoon Kiggundu donates sh530m to procure Covid-19 vaccine, https://www.newvision.co.ug/articledetails/107712, 2021-10-03, New Vision, en-US]

Money, People, Help

“Anybody who wishes to go beyond the free-will of another person is already practising narcissistic characteristics.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The matter of heart is more personal than accepting the opinions of others.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Heart

“[...] antisemitism is rationalised by saying that the Jew is a person who spreads disaffection and weakens national morale.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Source: Antisemitism in Britain (1945)

“[...] antisemitism is an irrational thing. The Jews are accused of specific offences (for instance, bad behaviour in food queues) which the person speaking feels strongly about, but it is obvious that these accusations merely rationalise some deep-rooted prejudice.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Source: Antisemitism in Britain (1945)

Food, Feeling

“What forms a bright personality,
Is intelligence plus heartiness.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Intelligence

“Don't consider anyone smaller than you, because he only becomes a bad person by going ahead”

Parth Siddhpura (2005) Indian singer and author

Source: https://en.everybodywiki.com/Parth_Siddhpura

“The beauty of empathy is that it doesn’t demand that you agree with the other person’s ideas.”

Chris Voss book Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Beauty, Idea

“God killed me, and only after He made me into someone entirely different from the person I had been, did he call me back to life.”

Osamu Dazai book The Setting Sun

Source: The Setting Sun

Life, God

“The fastest way, the most powerful way, the most effective way to experience the characteristics of divinity is to be a cause of another person experiencing the characteristics of divinity.”

Neale Donald Walsch (1943) American writer

Way

“The freedom to grow personally, the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them, the freedom to work hard and the freedom to be yourself - these four freedoms should be guaranteed by every leader in every organization.”

Mike Krzyzewski (1947) American basketball player and coach

Freedom, Learning

“I think I did have a reputation for being grumpy. I don't think I'm grumpy. I have opinions. I have an independent vision. I am a purposeful person. But on a daily basis, I think I'm other than grumpy. I think it is a case where I am coming to do business and not there just to be flattered and cajoled and used.”

Harrison Ford (1942) American film actor and producer

Business, Thinking

“Osobní zbraně pozvedly lidstvo z bláta, a puška je královnou osobních zbraní.”

Jeff Cooper (1920–2006) American journalist

“The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.”

Blaise Pascal Pensées

Source: Pensées

Men

“A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.”

B.F. Skinner book Beyond Freedom and Dignity

Source: Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1972).

Way, Learning

“The artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist.”

Eric Gill (1882–1940) British artist

“[A] person whose head is bowed and whose eyes are heavy cannot look at the light.”

Christine de Pizan (1365–1430) Italian French late medieval author

Source: Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc

Light

“Don't sum up a person based on what you see, or what you don't understand; get to know them”

Wendelin Van Draanen (1965) American writer

Source: The Running Dream

Understanding

“Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Maxims

“A novelist is a person who lives in other people's skins.”

E.L. Doctorow (1931–2015) novelist, editor, professor

People

“Your job is to focus on my personal happiness, she said, & I've got big plans, so break time is over.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Happiness, Time

“And once again I believe that nothing that's important really becomes lost. We just delude ourselves, thinking that we own the things, the moments and the others. Still with me are all the dead persons who I loved, all the friends who turned away, all the happy days that faded. I lost nothing but the illusion that everything could be mine forever.”

Miguel Sousa Tavares (1952) Portuguese writer

Love, Happiness, Thinking, Dead

“A person doesn't have to change who he is to become better.”

Sidney Poitier book The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

Source: The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

Change

“I think it's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Thinking, Time

“Never have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“The life of every human being on earth can depend on the experience, judgment, and vigilance of the person in the Oval Office.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Life, Dependency

“Literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks at reality, then you can change it.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

People, World, Way, Literature

“It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property. The existence of persons and property preceded the existence of the legislator, and his function is only to guarantee their safety.”

Frédéric Bastiat book The Law

Source: The Law

“She was not quite what you would call refined.
She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Variant: You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Understanding

“The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him. The person you think you see is only an empty character: truth is always hidden in fiction.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game

Source: The Angel's Game

Truth, Way, Thinking

“It’s more difficult to create the problem than to solve it. All the person trying to solve the problem has to do is always respect the problem’s creator.”

Keigo Higashino The Devotion of Suspect X

Source: The Devotion of Suspect X

Problem

“A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Presidency (1977–1981), 1977

Strong, Help

“I hated myself for going, why couldn't I be the kind of person who stays?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Hate

“Life is not an easy matter… You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.”

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia

Trotzky's Diary in Exile — 1935 (1958)
Source: Diary in Exile, 1935

Life, Idea

“It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another person, not with the mind, not even with the heart.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Variant: It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another human being, not with the mind, nor even with the heart.

Soul, Heart

“I would so hate to be a first-person character! Always on your guard, always having people read your thoughts!”

Jasper Fforde book Lost in a Good Book

Source: Lost in a Good Book

Hate, People, Reading

“We should add that it is a privilege to be the recipient of a sulk: it means the other person respects and trusts us enough to think we should understand their unspoken hurt. It is one of the odder gifts of love. Eventually”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: The Course of Love

Love, Understanding, Thinking, Hurt

“Every person is a book, each year a chapter”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Books, Inspirational

“Failure is an event not a person”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

Variant: Failing is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.

Failure

“The greatest gift you can ever give another person is your own happiness”

Esther Hicks (1948) American writer

Happiness

“Instinct of love toward an object demands a mastery to obtain it, and if a person feels they can't control the object or feel threatened by it, they act negatively toward it.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Love, Feeling

“For two personalities to meet is like mixing two chemical substances: if there is any combination at all, both are transformed.”

C.G. Jung book Modern Man in Search of a Soul

p. 49 http://books.google.com/books?id=U6lMnx8AQsYC&q=%22The+meeting+of+two+personalities+is+like+the+contact+of+two+chemical+substances+if+there+is+any+reaction+both+are%22+%22transformed%22&pg=PA49#v=onepage Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933) Variant: The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. Source: Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of His Writings 1905-61

“A person who's happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Variant: Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

Happiness, Faith, Courage

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher

Thinking, Light, Time, Gratitude

“We all leave one another. We die, we change - it's mostly change - we outgrow our best friends; but even if I do leave you, I will have passed on to you something of myself; you will be a different person because of knowing me; it's inescapable…”

Edna O'Brien (1930) Novelist, memoirist, biographer, playwright, poet and short story writer

Source: Girl with Green Eyes

Change

“Love, known to the person by whom it is inspired, becomes more bearable.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

Love

“Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say
yes.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

“The significant relationships of early adulthood are thus construed as the means to an end of individual achievement, and these "transitional figures" must be cast off or reconstructed following the realization of success. If in the process, however, they become, like Dido, an impediment to the fulfillment of the Dream, then the relationship must be renounced, "to allow the developmental process" to continue. This process is defined by Levinson explicitly as one of individuation: "throughout the life cycle, but especially in the key transition periods… the developmental process of individuation is going on." The process refers "to the changes in a person's relationships to himself and to the external world," the relationships that constitute his "Life Structure" (p. 195).

If in the course of "Becoming One's Own Man," this structure is discovered to be flawed and threatens the great expectations of the Dream, then in order to avert "serious Failure or Decline," the man must "break out" to salvage his Dream. This act of breaking out is consummated by a "marker event" of separation, such as "leaving his wife, quitting his job, or moving to another region" (p. 206). Thus the road to mid-life salvation runs through either achievement or separation.”

Carol Gilligan (1936) American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist

Source: In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development

Life, World, Dreams, Failure

“I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

"The Moral Problem"
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
Source: Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
Context: There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.

Feeling

“The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Love, Smile, Parent, For Parents

“We often get caught up in our own reactions and forget the vulnerability of the person in front of us.”

Sharon Salzberg (1952) American writer

Source: The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life with Love & Compassion

Forgetting

“Love has nothing to do with someone else. It is all about you. It is a way of being. It essentially means you have brought sweetness into your emotion. If a loved one travels to another country, would you still be able to love them? You would. If a loved one passed away, would you still be able to love them? You would. Even if a loved one is not physically with you anymore, you are still capable of being loving. So, what is love then? It is just your own quality. You are only using the other person as a key to open up what is already within you.”

Sadhguru book Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Love, Way, Travel, Country

“The line between normal and crazy seemed impossibly thin. A person would have to be an expert tightrope walker in order not to fall.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

“I know this much: that there is objective time, but also subjective time, the kind you wear on the inside of your wrist, next to where the pulse lies. And this personal time, which is the true time, is measured in your relationship to memory.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

Memory, Time

“Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from
Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.”

Malcolm X book The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Life, Birth, Understanding

“A beautiful object has no intrinsic quality that is good for the mind, nor an ugly object any intrinsic power to harm it. Beautiful and ugly are just projections of the mind. The ability to cause happiness or suffering is not a property of the outer object itself. For example, the sight of a particular individual can cause happiness to one person and suffering to another. It is the mind that attributes such qualities to the perceived object.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

Happiness, Beauty, Suffering

“I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

Love, God

“There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Essays and Lectures

“We never love anyone. Not really. We only love our idea of another person. It is some conception of our own that we love. We love ourselves, in fact.”

William Boyd (1952) British writer

Source: Cork

Love, Idea

“Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“The highest form of love is to be the protector of another person’s solitude.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

Love, Solitude

“Granny Weatherwax was not lost. She wasn't the kind of person who ever became lost. It was just that, at the moment, while she knew exactly where SHE was, she didn't know the position of anywhere else.”

Terry Pratchett book Wyrd Sisters

Source: Wyrd Sisters

“A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daimon.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Life

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR.”

Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Notice
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Source: The Adventures of Huck Finn

Motivation

“You're not allowed to call them dinosaurs any more," said Yo-less. "It's speciesist. You have to call them pre-petroleum persons.”

Terry Pratchett book Johnny and the Bomb

Source: Johnny and the Bomb

“In this metallic age of barbarians, only a relentless cultivation of our ability to dream, to analyse and to captivate can prevent our personality from degenerating into nothing or else into a personality like all the rest.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Age, Dreams

“Personal isn't the same as important.”

Terry Pratchett book Men at Arms

Variant: Personal’s not the same as important. People just think it is.
Source: Men at Arms

“Money is like any other virus: once it has rotted the soul of the person who houses it, it sets off in search of new blood.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Money, Soul, Search, Housing

“I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Wild Geese

Life, Way, Reading

“I discovered that I am tired of being a person. Not just tired of being the person I was, but any person at all”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

“He was evidently the sort of person who posed questions that were traps for you to fall into.”

Alice Munro (1931) Canadian novelist

Question

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Source: Life's Little Instruction Book: 511 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life

Dreams, Funny, Powerful

“The world’s most sensible person and the biggest idiot both stay within you. The worst part is you can’t even tell who is who.”

Chetan Bhagat book 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Variant: The world's most sensible person and the biggest idiot both stay within us. The worst part is, you can't even tell who is who.
Source: 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

World, Parting

“Everyone must become their own person, however frightful that may be.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man’s will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 86, “The Fire Itself” (pp. 672-673)

Love, Men, Tear, Light

“The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Variant: Someone once said that the moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever.
Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Love, Thinking

Quotes about personality page 5

Quotes about personality
page 5