Motivational Quotes

Character

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

- Mason, John L.

Best Quotes about Character

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

Guideposts

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

Hall, Manly

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

Baldwin, Faith

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

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

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

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

10.

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

11.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

12.

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

13.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

14.

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

15.

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

16.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

17.

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

18.

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.

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

22.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

23.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Mohammed

27.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

28.

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.

29.

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.

30.

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.

31.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

32.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

33.

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

34.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

35.

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

36.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

37.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt

38.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

39.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

40.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

41.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

42.

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

Gill, Vince

43.

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

Estrange, L.

44.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

45.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

46.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

47.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Confucius