Quotes: Personality

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in boldface is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Personality
We meet at meals and give others a new taste of our old personality.
Personality 430 We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. Thoreau, Walden.

Memory gives us identity.
Personality 241 Voltaire: …for it is memory that makes your identity. . Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Voltaire.

The highest gift of heaven is perfect self-forgetfulness.
Personality 414 Besides, she had that final, that highest gift of heaven, a perfect self-forgetfulness. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

He never had Mother’s gift of seeing things as they were.
Personality 415 “…he never had mother’s…power o’ seein’ things just as they be.” Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

I like to see people happy making use of the world as it comes to them.
Personality 415 “I think it is well to see any one so happy an’ makin’ the most of life just as it falls to hand….” Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

Her sorrow made her too lonely to live with others, but she was valiant enough to live with her own nature and the calms and passions of the sea and sky.
Personality 444 This plain anchorite had been one of those whom sorrow made too lonely to brave the sight of men, too timid to front the simple world she knew, yet valiant enough to live alone with her poor insistent human nature and the calms and passions of the sea and sky. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

Each of their boats was as distinctive as their personalities and just as inexpressive.
Personality 473 Abel's boat and Jonathan Bowden's boat were as distinct and experienced personalities as the men themselves and as inexpressive. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

The personalities of the old fishermen seemed to be fixed on nature, not on the contrivances of man like politics or theology.
Personality 473 I often wondered a great deal about the inner life and thought of these self-contained old fishermen; their minds seemed to be fixed upon nature and the elements rather than upon any contrivances of man, like politics or theology. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

Concentrating so much on catching fish makes old fishermen lose the gift of speech.
Personality 482 "I expect you had a kind of a dull session; he ain't the talkin' kind; dwellin' so much long o' fish seems to make 'em lose the gift o' speech." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

With so many pushing and yearning, it’s nice to meet someone who has no envy and does not try to be what he is not.
Personality 3 In a country of pushers and yearners, what a joy to meet a man who envies no one and wants to be nothing that he is not. Mencken, Minority Report.

People are always trying to do extraordinary and unnecessary things.
Personality 343 New Yorker: there is something about people that compels them to do extraordinary and unnecessary things half the time. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.

I’m surprised that he is ill, but I never did like him.
Personality 275 Celia: It is very shocking that Mr. Casaubon should be ill; but I never did like him. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

We are made up of so many fragments that at any time any fragment can play its own game.
Personality 114 We are all made up of fragments, so shapelessly and strangely assembled that every moment, every piece plays its own game. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Only you know if you are coward or cruel; others guess at you; they don’t see your nature, but your art.
Personality 289 There is only you who know if you are cowardly and cruel, or loyal and devout; others do not see you, they guess at you by uncertain conjectures; they see not so much your nature as your art. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

I hate people that ignore the pleasures of life and concentrate only on its misfortunes.
Personality 322 I hate a surly and gloomy spirit that slides over all the pleasures of life and seizes and feeds upon its misfortunes. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Many people use taciturnity and a cold expression as a mark of wisdom and capacity.
Personality 425 To how many stupid souls in my time has a cold and taciturn mien served as a mark of wisdom and capacity. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Nothing is more serious in appearance and taciturn than an ass.
Personality 432 Is there anything so assured, resolute, disdainful, contemplative, grave and serious as an ass? Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Her brilliant personality seemed to leave a stain on the air.
Personality 831 It was if the vivid coloring of her character had left a brilliant stain upon the air. Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance.