“Character is destiny.”

Change alone is unchanging.

Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.

The sun is the width of a human foot.

All men have the capacity of knowing themselves and acting with moderation.

What are men? Mortal gods. What are gods? Immortal men.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Even what those with the greatest reputation for knowing it all claim to understand and defend are but opinions.

Nature loves to hide.

The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.

We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.

There is exchange of all things for fire and of fire for all things, as there is of wares for gold and of gold for wares.

Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death.

If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out and difficult.

Knowing many things doesn’t teach insight.

Nothing endures but change.

When you’re doing a character, you want to know the full landscape. You want to know them spiritually, mentally and physically.

One of the first things I was taught as an actor was, ‘Don’t judge the character.’

When you play characters, you shouldn’t just be putting on their characteristics – you should be finding it inside yourself.

You’re not free unless you can show the good and the bad, all sides of them. So to me, when I play a character, it’s important that I can show every aspect of them.

I try to look at every role the same way, regardless of whether the character is real or the character is a fantasy. I always start from myself, because you have to know yourself first.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

When your intelligence don’t tell you something ain’t right, your conscience gives you a tap you on the shoulder and says ‘Hold on’. If it don’t, you’re a snake.

You can make some inferences about a man’s character if you know something about the conditions in which he has survived and prospered.