Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Elmer G. Letterman

Best Quotes about Character

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

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

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

Guideposts

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

10.

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

Proverb

11.

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

12.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

13.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

14.

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

Collins, Marva

15.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

16.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Confucius

17.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

18.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

19.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

20.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

21.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

22.

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

23.

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

Hermann Hesse

24.

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.

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

29.

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

30.

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

31.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

32.

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.

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

36.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

37.

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

38.

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

39.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

40.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

41.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

42.

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

Elihu Burritt

43.

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

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.

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

46.

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

Joan Didion

47.

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

48.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Lippmann, Walter

49.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

50.

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

Thomas, John M.