Motivational Quotes

Character

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

- Abbott, Lyman

Best Quotes about Character

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

10.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

11.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

12.

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

13.

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

Freeman, Robert

14.

When about to commit a base deed, respect thyself, though there is no witness.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

15.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

16.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

17.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

18.

For character too is a process and an unfolding... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

Eliot, George

19.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

20.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

21.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

22.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

23.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Lippmann, Walter

24.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

25.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

26.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

28.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

29.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

30.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

Lincoln, Abraham

31.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

32.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

33.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

34.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

35.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

36.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character -- putting together all their yesterdays -- and averaging them -- we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is the silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

37.

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Greeley, Horace

38.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

39.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

40.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

41.

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

Linall Jr. A. L.

42.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

43.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Hepburn, Katharine

44.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

45.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

46.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

47.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Angelou, Maya

48.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

49.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

50.

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.