Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Guideposts

Best Quotes about Character

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Lincoln, Abraham

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

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

James A. Froude

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

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

10.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

11.

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

Euripides

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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.

15.

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.

16.

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

Mason, John L.

17.

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

Voltaire

18.

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.

Disraeli, Benjamin

19.

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.

20.

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

21.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

22.

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

23.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Keller, Helen

24.

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

25.

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

Hermann Hesse

26.

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

Royal, Darrell

27.

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

28.

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.

29.

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

30.

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

Solon

31.

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

Freeman, Robert

32.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

33.

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

34.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Buddha

38.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

39.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

40.

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

41.

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.

42.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

43.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

44.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

45.

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