The spiritual life is part of the human essence. It is a defining characteristic of human nature, without which human nature is not fully human.
The need to raise itself above humanity is humanity's main characteristic.
Altogether it will be found that a quiet life is characteristic of great men, and that their pleasures have not been of the sort that would look exciting to the outward eye.
Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratifications.
I miss him like one might miss a scar, or wooden leg, something disfiguring but characteristic.
Each man forms his duty according to his predominant characteristic; the stern require an avenging judge; the gentle, a forgiving father. Just so the pygmies declared that Jove himself was a pygmy.
Knowledge, unlike information, is a human characteristic; there can be information no one knows, but there can't be knowledge no one knows.
The characteristic of the first sort of religion is imitation. It insists on imitation: imitate Buddha, imitate Christ, imitate Mahavir, but imitate. Imitate somebody. Don`t be yourself, be somebody else. And if you are very stubborn you can force yourself to be somebody else. You will never be somebody else. Deep down you cannot be. You will remain yourself, but you can force so much that you almost start looking like somebody else.
The extreme self-sacrifice characteristic of group-selected species such as ants and bees can often be found among soldiers.
There's no denial that one's gender orientation is certainly a core characteristic of any person, but it's not the only one.
It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness. Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that the party was trying to achieve.
Genius, without work, is certainly a dumb oracle, and it is unquestionably true that the men of the highest genius have invariably been found to be amongst the most plodding, hard-working, and intent men -- their chief characteristic apparently consisting simply in their power of laboring more intensely and effectively than others.
This is a speculating and selfish age; and to think 'money will answer all things,' is too much the characteristic of Americans.
The need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla.
Creativity is a characteristic given to all human beings at birth.
Worry is characteristic of the heathen, not the Christian.
It must be hard for humans, forever floundering through inconvenient geography. Humans are always lost. It's a basic characteristic. It explains a lot about them.
The characteristic feature of all ethics is to consider human life as a game that can be won or lost and to teach man the means of winning.
People who work on the user interface side need to have empathy as a key characteristic. But if you are writing device drivers you don't really need to understand humans so well.
The American Civil War produced carnage that has often been thought reserved for the combination of technological proficiency and inhumanity characteristic of a later time.