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

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

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

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

Thoreau, Henry David

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

Joan Didion

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.

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

Guideposts

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

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

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Wooden, John

10.

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

11.

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.

12.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

13.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

14.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

15.

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

Reagan, Ronald

16.

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

17.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

18.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

19.

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

20.

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

21.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

22.

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

23.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

24.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

25.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

26.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

27.

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

28.

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

Royal, Darrell

29.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

30.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

31.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

32.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

33.

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

Lippmann, Walter

34.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

35.

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

Taylor, Bayard

36.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

37.

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.

38.

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

Shakespeare, William

39.

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.

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Leneru, Marie

43.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

44.

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.

45.

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

46.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

Lincoln, Abraham

47.

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

Bible

48.

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

Estrange, L.

49.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

50.

Character is victory organized.