Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force. Gustave Flaubert
Mr. Truman studiously avoided giving power to his White House staff that has been characteristic of recent administrations. Staff people in the White House, with no responsibility but incredible authority is one of the reasons we're now in so much trouble. Stuart Symington
On the contrary, the characteristic element of the present situation is that economic questions have finally and irrevocably invaded the domain of public life and politics. Arthur Henderson
Oppression is something that one group of people commits against another group specifically because of a threatening characteristic shared by the latter group. Robin Morgan
The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will. Jose Ortega y Gasset
The obsession with suicide is characteristic of the man who can neither live nor die, and whose attention never swerves from this double impossibility. Emile M. Cioran
The other salient characteristic of the Declaration is its universality: it applies to all human beings without any discrimination whatever; it also applies to all territories, whatever their economic or political regime. Rene Cassin
The self has the characteristic that it is an object to itself, and that characteristic distinguishes it from other objects and from the body. George H. Mead