Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

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

Frankfurter, Felix

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

James, William

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Angelou, Maya

10.

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

11.

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.

12.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

13.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

14.

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

15.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

16.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

17.

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

18.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

19.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

20.

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

Taylor, Bayard

21.

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.

22.

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

23.

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

24.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

25.

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

Hermann Hesse

26.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Keller, Helen

27.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

28.

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

29.

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.

30.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

31.

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

32.

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

Estrange, L.

33.

Eliot, George

34.

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

35.

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

36.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

37.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

38.

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.

39.

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

40.

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

Baldwin, Faith

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

49.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.