Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Hall, Manly

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

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

Mason, John L.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

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

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

10.

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

11.

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

Taylor, Bayard

12.

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

Voltaire

13.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

17.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

18.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

19.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

20.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

21.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

22.

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

Chambers, Oswald

23.

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

Francis Thompson

24.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

25.

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

26.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

King Jr. Martin Luther

27.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

28.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

29.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

30.

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: initiative, imagination, individuality, and independence.

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

31.

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

Karr, Alphonse

32.

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

Guideposts

33.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

34.

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

35.

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

Confucius

36.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

37.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

38.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

39.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

40.

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

Leneru, Marie

41.

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Boardman, George D.

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

Mohammed

46.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

47.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

48.

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

49.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

50.

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.