Motivational Quotes

Character

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

- Oscar Levant

Best Quotes about Character

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

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

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

Bible

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

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

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

Mason, John L.

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

Elihu Burritt

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

10.

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

Proverb

11.

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

12.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln

13.

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

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.

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

Hermann Hesse

16.

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.

James, William

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

20.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

21.

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

Aristotle

22.

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

Howell, Harry

23.

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

24.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

25.

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

26.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

27.

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

28.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

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.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

31.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

32.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

33.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

34.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

35.

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

36.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

37.

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

38.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

39.

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

Peter The Great

40.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

41.

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Greeley, Horace

42.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

43.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

44.

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

Seneca

45.

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

46.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

47.

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

Francis Thompson

48.

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.

49.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

50.

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

Elmer G. Letterman