Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Disraeli, Benjamin

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

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

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

Proverb

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

10.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

11.

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

Thackeray, William M.

12.

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

13.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

14.

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

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.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

17.

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

James A. Froude

18.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

19.

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

20.

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

Karr, Alphonse

21.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

22.

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.

23.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

24.

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

25.

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.

26.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

27.

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

Brown, Les

28.

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

29.

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

30.

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

Richter, Jean Paul

31.

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

Bible

32.

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

Seneca

33.

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

Hermann Hesse

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

Marie Leneru

36.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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.

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

Confucius

39.

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

40.

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

Royal, Darrell

41.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

42.

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

Maritain, Jacques

43.

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