Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

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

James A. Froude

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

Voltaire

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

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

Hall, Manly

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.

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

Lippmann, Walter

10.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

11.

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

12.

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

Mason, John L.

13.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

14.

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

Thomas, John M.

15.

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

16.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

17.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

18.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

19.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

20.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

21.

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

Crisp, Quentin

22.

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

23.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

24.

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

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.

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

27.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

28.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

29.

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

30.

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

31.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Cicero, Marcus T.

32.

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

33.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

34.

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

35.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

36.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

37.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

38.

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

39.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

40.

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

Brown, Les

41.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

42.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

43.

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

44.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

45.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

46.

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

Euripides

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

50.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van