Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Petrarch, Francesco

Best Quotes about Character

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

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

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.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Akhenaton

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

Marie Leneru

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

Hall, Manly

10.

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

Leneru, Marie

11.

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

Mohammed

12.

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

Thurber, James

13.

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

Karr, Alphonse

14.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

15.

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

Greeley, Horace

16.

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

17.

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

18.

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.

Pandita, Saskya

19.

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

20.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

21.

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.

22.

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

Shakespeare, William

23.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

24.

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.

25.

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

Maritain, Jacques

26.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

27.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

28.

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

29.

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

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.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

32.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

33.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

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.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

36.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

37.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

38.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

39.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

40.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

41.

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

42.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

43.

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

44.

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.

45.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

46.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

47.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Elmer G. Letterman