Motivational Quotes

Character

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

- Akhenaton

Best Quotes about Character

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

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 is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

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

Michener, James A.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

10.

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

11.

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

12.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

13.

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

Freeman, Robert

14.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

15.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

16.

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

17.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

18.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

19.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

20.

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

21.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt

22.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

23.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

24.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

25.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

26.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

28.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

29.

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

30.

To succeed is nothing -- it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Leneru, Marie

31.

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.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

32.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

33.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

34.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Cicero, Marcus T.

35.

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.

36.

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.

37.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

38.

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

Mason, John L.

39.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

40.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

41.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

43.

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

44.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

45.

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

Joan Didion

46.

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.

Pandita, Saskya

47.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

48.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

49.

Look, we're all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house --in the bedroom he's asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he's rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he's paying his taxes, in the yard he's raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he's making a bomb to blow it all up.

Miller, Arthur

50.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln