Motivational Quotes

Character

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

- Luther, John

Best Quotes about Character

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

To succeed is nothing, it's an accident. but to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Marie Leneru

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

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

Royal, Darrell

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

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

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

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

10.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

11.

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

Taylor, Bayard

12.

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

13.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

14.

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

15.

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

16.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Keller, Helen

17.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

18.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

19.

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.

20.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

21.

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

Hall, Manly

22.

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

Maritain, Jacques

23.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

24.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

25.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

26.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

27.

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

Peter The Great

28.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

29.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

30.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

31.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

32.

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

33.

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

34.

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

Estrange, L.

35.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

36.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

37.

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

38.

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

Chambers, Oswald

39.

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

40.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

41.

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

Euripides

42.

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

43.

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.

44.

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.

45.

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

Hay, Colin

46.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

47.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

48.

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

49.

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

50.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Goldsmith, Oliver