Motivational Quotes

Character

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

- Haliburton, Thomas C.

Best Quotes about Character

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

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

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

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

Frankfurter, Felix

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

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

Confucius

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

Chesterfield, Lord

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

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

10.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

11.

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

Guideposts

12.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

13.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

14.

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

15.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

16.

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

17.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

18.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

19.

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

20.

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

Horace

21.

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

Maritain, Jacques

22.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

23.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

24.

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.

25.

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

Mason, John L.

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

Thomas, John M.

29.

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.

30.

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

31.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

32.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

33.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

34.

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

35.

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.

36.

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

37.

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.

38.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

39.

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

40.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

41.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

42.

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

43.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

44.

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

Crisp, Quentin

45.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

46.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo