Motivational Quotes

Character

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

- Baldwin, Faith

Best Quotes about Character

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

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

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

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

Lippmann, Walter

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

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

Mason, John L.

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

Shakespeare, William

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

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

Hall, Manly

10.

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.

11.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Goldsmith, Oliver

12.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

13.

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

Merikare

14.

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

15.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

16.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

17.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

18.

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.

19.

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

20.

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

Michener, James A.

21.

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

22.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

23.

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.

James, William

24.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

25.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

26.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

27.

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

Greeley, Horace

28.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

29.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

30.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

31.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

32.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

33.

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

Horace

34.

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

Leneru, Marie

35.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

36.

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards, himself his own dungeon.

Pandita, Saskya

37.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

41.

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

42.

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.

43.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

44.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

45.

You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm... you can not buy loyalty. You can not buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.

Francis, Clarence

46.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

47.

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.

48.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

49.

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

50.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon