Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Hall, Manly

Best Quotes about Character

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

Karr, Alphonse

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

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

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

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

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

Thoreau, Henry David

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his 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

10.

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

11.

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.

12.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

13.

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards, himself his own dungeon.

Pandita, Saskya

14.

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

15.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

16.

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

Horace

17.

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

18.

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

Thurber, James

19.

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

Aristotle

20.

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

Buddha

21.

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

Euripides

22.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

23.

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

Richter, Jean Paul

24.

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

Hall, Manly

25.

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

Guideposts

26.

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

27.

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

28.

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

Chambers, Oswald

29.

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

30.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

31.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

32.

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

33.

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.

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

37.

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

38.

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

Voltaire

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Bible

42.

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

Michener, James A.

43.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

44.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

45.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

46.

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

Mason, John L.

47.

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

48.

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

49.

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

50.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt