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

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

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

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

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

Freeman, Robert

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

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

Voltaire

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

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

11.

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

Hall, Manly

12.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

13.

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.

14.

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

Michener, James A.

15.

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

16.

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

Hay, Colin

17.

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Jefferson, Thomas

18.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

19.

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

20.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

21.

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

Thomas, John M.

22.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

23.

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

James A. Froude

24.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

25.

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

26.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Wooden, John

27.

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

Solon

28.

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

Confucius

29.

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

Proverb

30.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

31.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

32.

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

33.

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

Horace

34.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

35.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

36.

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

Elihu Burritt

37.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

38.

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

39.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

40.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

41.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

42.

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

43.

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

Peter The Great

44.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

45.

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

46.

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

Royal, Darrell

47.

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

48.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

49.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

King Jr. Martin Luther

50.

James, William