Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Nathaniel Emmons

Best Quotes about Character

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

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

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

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

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

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

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Jefferson, Thomas

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

10.

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

11.

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

Maritain, Jacques

12.

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

Peter The Great

13.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

14.

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.

15.

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

16.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

17.

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

Gill, Vince

18.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

19.

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

20.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

21.

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

22.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

23.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

24.

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

25.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

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

Hermann Hesse

27.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

28.

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

29.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

30.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

31.

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

32.

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

Thurber, James

33.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

34.

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

35.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

36.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

37.

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

Hall, Manly

38.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

39.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

40.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

41.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

45.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

46.

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

Reagan, Ronald

47.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character -- putting together all their yesterdays -- and averaging them -- we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is the silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

48.

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

49.

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

Thackeray, William M.

50.

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

Bible