Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Fitzwater, P. B.

Best Quotes about Character

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

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

Freeman, Robert

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

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

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

10.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

11.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

12.

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

13.

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

Horace

14.

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

15.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

16.

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

17.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

18.

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

19.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

23.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Angelou, Maya

24.

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

25.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

26.

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.

27.

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

28.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

29.

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.

30.

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

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.

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

Buddha

33.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

34.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

35.

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

Euripides

36.

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

Shakespeare, William

37.

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.

38.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

39.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

40.

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

Hermann Hesse

41.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

42.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character -- putting together all their yesterdays -- and averaging them -- we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is the silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

43.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

44.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

45.

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

Thomas, John M.

46.

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

47.

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

48.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

49.

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

50.

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

Karr, Alphonse