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

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

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

Petrarch, Francesco

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

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

Taylor, Bayard

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

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

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

10.

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

Brown, Les

11.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

12.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

13.

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.

14.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

15.

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

16.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

17.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

18.

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

19.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

20.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

21.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

22.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

23.

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

24.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

25.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

26.

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

James A. Froude

27.

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

28.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

29.

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.

30.

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

31.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

32.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

33.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

34.

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

Solon

35.

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

Karr, Alphonse

36.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

37.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

King Jr. Martin Luther

38.

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

Peter The Great

39.

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

40.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

41.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

45.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

46.

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

47.

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

Joan Didion

48.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

49.

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

Proverb

50.

A man's character is his fate.