Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Best Quotes about Character

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

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

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

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

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

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

Bible

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

10.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

11.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

12.

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

Elihu Burritt

13.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

14.

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

15.

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: initiative, imagination, individuality, and independence.

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

16.

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

Solon

17.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

18.

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

Hay, Colin

19.

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.

20.

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

21.

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

22.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

23.

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

24.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

25.

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

Joan Didion

26.

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

Maritain, Jacques

27.

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

James A. Froude

28.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

29.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

30.

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.

31.

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

Brown, Les

32.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

33.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Proverb

37.

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.

38.

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

Lippmann, Walter

39.

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

Voltaire

40.

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

41.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

42.

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

43.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

44.

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

45.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

46.

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

47.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

48.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

49.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

50.

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

Hall, Manly