Motivational Quotes

Character

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

- Oscar Levant

Best Quotes about Character

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

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

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

Lippmann, Walter

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

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

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

Taylor, Bayard

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

Confucius

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

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

10.

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

11.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

12.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

13.

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

Freeman, Robert

14.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

15.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

16.

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

Chambers, Oswald

17.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

18.

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

19.

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

Elihu Burritt

20.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

21.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

22.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

23.

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

Royal, Darrell

24.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

25.

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

Shakespeare, William

26.

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.

27.

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

28.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

29.

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

30.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

31.

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

Voltaire

32.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

33.

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

Crisp, Quentin

34.

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

35.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Hall, Manly

39.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

40.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

41.

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

42.

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

43.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

44.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

45.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

46.

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