Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Jefferson, Thomas

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Chambers, Oswald

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

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

Greeley, Horace

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

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

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

Maritain, Jacques

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.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

10.

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

Howell, Harry

11.

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.

12.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

13.

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

14.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

15.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

16.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

17.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

18.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

19.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

20.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

21.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

22.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

23.

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.

24.

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

25.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

26.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

27.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

28.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

29.

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

30.

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

Thurber, James

31.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Confucius

32.

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

33.

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

34.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

35.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

36.

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

Mason, John L.

37.

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

Solon

38.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

39.

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

40.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

41.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

43.

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

44.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

45.

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

Reagan, Ronald

46.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

47.

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

48.

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

Proverb, Chinese

49.

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

50.

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

Freeman, Robert