Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

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

Shakespeare, William

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

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

10.

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.

11.

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

Lippmann, Walter

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

15.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

16.

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

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.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

19.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

20.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

21.

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

22.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

23.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

24.

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

Hall, Manly

25.

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

Freeman, Robert

26.

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

Horace

27.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

28.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

29.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

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

Greeley, Horace

31.

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

32.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

33.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

34.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

35.

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

36.

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

Thomas, John M.

37.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

38.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

39.

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

40.

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Akhenaton

41.

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

42.

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

Karr, Alphonse

43.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

44.

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

45.

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.

46.

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

47.

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.

48.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

49.

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.

50.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar