Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Proverb

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

W. Somerset Maugham

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

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

10.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

Thoreau, Henry David

11.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

12.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

13.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

14.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

15.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

16.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

17.

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.

18.

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.

Disraeli, Benjamin

19.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

20.

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.

21.

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

Greeley, Horace

22.

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

James A. Froude

23.

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

24.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

25.

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

26.

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Jefferson, Thomas

27.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

28.

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

29.

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

Joan Didion

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Buddha

33.

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

Hermann Hesse

34.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

35.

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

36.

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

Taylor, Bayard

37.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

38.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

39.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

40.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

41.

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

42.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

43.

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

Francis Thompson

44.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

45.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

46.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

47.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

48.

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

Freeman, Robert

49.

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

Elihu Burritt

50.

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

Hepburn, Katharine