Motivational Quotes

Character

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.

Best Quotes about Character

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.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

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

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

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

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

Lincoln, Abraham

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

Karr, Alphonse

10.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

11.

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

Confucius

12.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

13.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

Hall, Manly

17.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

18.

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

19.

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

20.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

21.

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

Freeman, Robert

22.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

23.

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.

24.

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

25.

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

Lippmann, Walter

26.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

27.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

28.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

29.

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

30.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

31.

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

32.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

33.

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

34.

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

35.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

36.

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

37.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Aristotle

41.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

42.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

43.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

44.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

48.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

49.

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

50.

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