Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Elihu Burritt

Best Quotes about 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.

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

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

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.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

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

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

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

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

Lincoln, Abraham

10.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

11.

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

12.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

13.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

14.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

15.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

16.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

17.

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

18.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

19.

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

Taylor, Bayard

20.

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

21.

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

Brown, Les

22.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

23.

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

Joan Didion

24.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

25.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

29.

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

30.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

31.

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

32.

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

Mason, John L.

33.

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

Guideposts

34.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

35.

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

Proverb

36.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

37.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

38.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

39.

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

40.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

41.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

42.

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

Hermann Hesse

43.

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

Leneru, Marie

44.

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

Euripides

45.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

46.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

47.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

48.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

49.

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

Proverb, Chinese

50.

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