Motivational Quotes

Character

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.

Best Quotes about Character

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

Baldwin, Faith

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

Leneru, Marie

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

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

Howell, Harry

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

Guideposts

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

Karr, Alphonse

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

10.

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

Maritain, Jacques

11.

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

Voltaire

12.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

16.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

17.

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

Elihu Burritt

18.

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

19.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

20.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

21.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

22.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

23.

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

24.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

25.

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

Marie Leneru

26.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

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

Chambers, Oswald

28.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

29.

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

30.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

31.

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

32.

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

Francis Thompson

33.

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

34.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

35.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

36.

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.

37.

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

38.

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

Taylor, Bayard

39.

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

40.

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

41.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

43.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

44.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

45.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

46.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

47.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

48.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

49.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

50.

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