One can acquire everything in solitude—except character.

About Menander

Portrait of Menander

Menander ( ; Ancient Greek: Μένανδρος, romanized: Ménandros; c. 342/341 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek playwright and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the City Dionysia is unknown.

More quotations from Menander

He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

More quotations tagged with “character”

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

—Marie Leneru

Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How easy it is for generous sentiments, high courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their influence beneath the chilling blight of selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who was great in all the minor attributes of character, but who was found wanting when it became necessary to prove how much principle is superior to policy.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

—Japanese proverb

History

11 Jul 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.