Motivational Quotes

Character

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

- Lebowitz, Fran

Best Quotes about Character

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

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

Karr, Alphonse

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

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.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

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

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

10.

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

Proverb

11.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

12.

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.

13.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

14.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

15.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

16.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

17.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

18.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

19.

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

Maritain, Jacques

20.

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

Proverb

21.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

22.

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

23.

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

James A. Froude

24.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

25.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

26.

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.

27.

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

28.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

29.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

30.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

31.

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

Royal, Darrell

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.

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

Joan Didion

34.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

35.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

36.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

37.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

38.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

39.

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

40.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

41.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

42.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

43.

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

44.

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.

45.

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

Hay, Colin

46.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

47.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Hepburn, Katharine

48.

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

49.

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.

50.

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.