Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Aristotle

Best Quotes about Character

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: initiative, imagination, individuality, and independence.

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

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

Hepburn, Katharine

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

Buddha

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

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

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

Elihu Burritt

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

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

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

Shakespeare, William

10.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

11.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

12.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

13.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

14.

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

15.

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

16.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

17.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

18.

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

Freeman, Robert

19.

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

20.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

21.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

22.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

23.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

24.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

25.

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

26.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

27.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

28.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

29.

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

Lippmann, Walter

30.

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

Confucius

31.

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

Gill, Vince

32.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

33.

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.

34.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

35.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

36.

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.

37.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Wooden, John

38.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

39.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

40.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

King Jr. Martin Luther

41.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

42.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

43.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

44.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

45.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

46.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

47.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

Trotsky, Leon

48.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

49.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

50.

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

Michener, James A.