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

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

Hermann Hesse

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

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

Greeley, Horace

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

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

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

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

10.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

11.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

12.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

13.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

14.

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

Francis Thompson

15.

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

Buddha

16.

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

Shakespeare, William

17.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

18.

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

Maritain, Jacques

19.

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

Crisp, Quentin

20.

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

21.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

22.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

23.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

24.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

25.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

26.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

27.

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

28.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

29.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

30.

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.

31.

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

32.

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

Mason, John L.

33.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

34.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

35.

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

Joan Didion

36.

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

37.

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

38.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

39.

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

Freeman, Robert

40.

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

41.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

42.

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

Brown, Les

43.

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

Chambers, Oswald

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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

Euripides

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

50.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Goldsmith, Oliver