Motivational Quotes

Character

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.

Best Quotes about Character

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

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

Confucius

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

When about to commit a base deed, respect thyself, though there is no witness.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

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

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

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

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

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

10.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

11.

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

12.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

13.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

14.

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.

15.

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

W. Somerset Maugham

16.

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.

17.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

18.

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

19.

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.

20.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

21.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

22.

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

23.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

24.

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

Estrange, L.

25.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

26.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

27.

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

28.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

29.

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

Howell, Harry

30.

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

Joan Didion

31.

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

Maritain, Jacques

32.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

33.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

34.

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

Hay, Colin

35.

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

36.

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

Reagan, Ronald

37.

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

38.

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

Bible

39.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

40.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

45.

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

46.

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

Greeley, Horace

47.

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