Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Greeley, Horace

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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

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

Buddha

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

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

Chambers, Oswald

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

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

Shakespeare, William

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

10.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

11.

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

Thomas, John M.

12.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

13.

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

14.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

15.

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

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 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

18.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

19.

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

Hay, Colin

20.

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

21.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

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

Proverb

25.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

26.

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

27.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

28.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

29.

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.

30.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

31.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

32.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

33.

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

Karr, Alphonse

34.

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.

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Joan Didion

39.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

40.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

41.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

42.

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

43.

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.

44.

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

45.

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

Voltaire

46.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

47.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

48.

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

49.

Look, we're all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house --in the bedroom he's asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he's rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he's paying his taxes, in the yard he's raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he's making a bomb to blow it all up.

Miller, Arthur

50.

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

James A. Froude