Motivational Quotes

Character

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

- Oscar Levant

Best Quotes about Character

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

Guideposts

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

Proverb

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

Thoreau, Henry David

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

Solon

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Joan Didion

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

Mason, John L.

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

Thomas, John M.

10.

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

Karr, Alphonse

11.

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

Brown, Les

12.

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

13.

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

14.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

15.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

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.

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

Shakespeare, William

18.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

19.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

20.

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

Estrange, L.

21.

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

Peter The Great

22.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

23.

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.

24.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

25.

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

26.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

27.

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.

28.

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

James A. Froude

29.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

30.

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

31.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

32.

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

33.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

34.

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

35.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

36.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

37.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

38.

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

Hay, Colin

39.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

40.

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.

41.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

42.

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

Mohammed

43.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

44.

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

45.

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.

46.

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

47.

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

Leneru, Marie

48.

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

49.

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.

50.

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