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This article, based on empirical findings, raises doubts regarding the possibility of explaining or predicting the behaviour of individuals on the basis of ascribed character traits. Traits like courage, generosity and arrogance, which might be considered stable and consistent — stable in like situations and consistent across different ones — in fact describe contextdependent behaviours. For example, in military contexts, a warrior who fights valiantly in infantry combat may become timid when facing a tank; while across contexts, the warrior brave in battle may show no great valour in civic struggles. It appears, then, that accident, circumstance and luck have a greater part than character in explaining human behaviour.