Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Shakespeare, William

Best Quotes about Character

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

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

Lincoln, Abraham

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

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

Bible

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

Frankfurter, Felix

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

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

Confucius

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

10.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

11.

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.

12.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

13.

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

14.

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

Estrange, L.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

18.

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

Brown, Les

19.

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

20.

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

Karr, Alphonse

21.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

22.

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

23.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

24.

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

Euripides

25.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

26.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

28.

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

Gill, Vince

29.

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

30.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

31.

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

32.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Hay, Colin

37.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

38.

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

39.

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

40.

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

41.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

42.

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

James A. Froude

43.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

44.

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