Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Gill, Vince

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

Karr, Alphonse

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

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

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

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

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

15.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

16.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

17.

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

18.

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.

19.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

20.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

21.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

22.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

23.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

24.

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

Thackeray, William M.

25.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

29.

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.

30.

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

Royal, Darrell

31.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

32.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

33.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

34.

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

35.

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

Guideposts

36.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

37.

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

38.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

39.

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

40.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

41.

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

42.

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

Thurber, James

43.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

44.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

45.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.