Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Peter The Great

Best Quotes about Character

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

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

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

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

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

Chambers, Oswald

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

10.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

11.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

12.

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

Lippmann, Walter

13.

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

14.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

15.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

16.

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

Brown, Les

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

20.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

21.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

22.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

23.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

24.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

25.

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

26.

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

Greeley, Horace

27.

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

Voltaire

28.

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

29.

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

Thurber, James

30.

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

31.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

32.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

33.

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

Hermann Hesse

34.

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

Euripides

35.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

36.

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

Karr, Alphonse

37.

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

Howell, Harry

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

41.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

42.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

43.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

44.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

45.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

46.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

47.

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

Elihu Burritt

48.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

49.

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

50.

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.