Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.

One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

When somewhat at a distance, I cannot hear the high tones of instruments, voices. In speaking, it is not surprising that there are people who have never noticed it, for as a rule I am absent-minded, and they account for it in that way.

No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

The darkness is really out there. It’s not something that’s in my head, just. It’s in my work because it’s in the world.

No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.

The outside perception and inside perception of Microsoft are so different. The view of Microsoft inside Microsoft is always kind of an underdog thing.

What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man’s soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.

Lenience will operate with greater force, in some instances than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have all of my conduct distinguished by it.

Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin!

If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

The glory of the nation rests in the character of her men. And character comes from boyhood. Thus, every boy is a challenge to his elders.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

Reality is a sliding door.

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don’t understand.

True nobility is exempt from fear.

A man is great by deeds, not by birth.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

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

You may be educated abroad, you may be a great scientist, politician, but you always have a sneaking fear that if you don’t go to temples or do the ordinary things that you have been told to do, something evil might happen, so you conform. What happens to the mind that conforms? Investigate it, please.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.

Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted – folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them.

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.

I think it’s a myth that American public or any other public is so stupid that they need to be constantly pricked.

The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

Do everything as in the eye of another.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.

I deserve respect for the things I did not do.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

In the history of medicine, it is not always the great scientist or the learned doctor who goes forward to discover new fields, new avenues, new ideas.

Changes are not unusual – I mean, most movies, when they release them, they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world.

It takes a smart man to play dumb.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favor of two.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.