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

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

Lippmann, Walter

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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.

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

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

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

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

Proverb, Chinese

10.

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

Solon

11.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

12.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

13.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

14.

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

15.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

16.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

17.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

18.

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

Shakespeare, William

19.

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

20.

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

21.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

22.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

23.

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

24.

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

Peter The Great

25.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

26.

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

Karr, Alphonse

27.

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

Gill, Vince

28.

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

Crisp, Quentin

29.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

31.

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.

32.

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

33.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

34.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

35.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

36.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

37.

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

38.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

39.

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

Freeman, Robert

40.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

41.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

42.

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

43.

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

Maritain, Jacques

44.

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.

45.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

46.

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.

47.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

48.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

49.

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

Bible

50.

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

Chambers, Oswald