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

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

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

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Shakespeare, William

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

10.

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

11.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

12.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

13.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

14.

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

15.

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

Euripides

16.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

17.

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

18.

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

Hall, Manly

19.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

20.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

21.

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

22.

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

Solon

23.

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

Peter The Great

24.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

25.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

Thoreau, Henry David

26.

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

27.

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

Freeman, Robert

28.

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

29.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

30.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

31.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

32.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

33.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

34.

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

35.

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

Thomas, John M.

36.

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

37.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Mason, John L.

41.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

42.

To succeed is nothing, it's an accident. but to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Marie Leneru

43.

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

44.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

45.

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Boardman, George D.

46.

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.

47.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

48.

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

Baldwin, Faith

49.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

50.

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.