Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Maritain, Jacques

Best Quotes about Character

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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.

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

Peter The Great

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

Chambers, Oswald

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

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

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

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

10.

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

Collins, Marva

11.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

12.

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.

13.

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

14.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

15.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

16.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

17.

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

18.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

19.

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

20.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

21.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

22.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Thurber, James

26.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

27.

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

28.

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

29.

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

Freeman, Robert

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Karr, Alphonse

33.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

37.

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

38.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

39.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

40.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

41.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

42.

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

43.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

44.

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

Baldwin, Faith

45.

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

46.

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

Euripides

47.

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

48.

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

49.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant