Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Elihu Burritt

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

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

Royal, Darrell

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

Thoreau, Henry David

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

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

10.

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

11.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

12.

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.

13.

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

14.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

15.

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

Hall, Manly

16.

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

Karr, Alphonse

17.

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

18.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

19.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

20.

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

Joan Didion

21.

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.

22.

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

23.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

24.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

25.

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

26.

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

Buddha

27.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

28.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

29.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Freeman, Robert

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

Greeley, Horace

36.

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

Maritain, Jacques

37.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

38.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

39.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

40.

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

41.

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

42.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

43.

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

Lippmann, Walter

44.

To succeed is nothing -- it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Leneru, Marie

45.

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.

46.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

47.

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

48.

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

Aristotle

49.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.