Motivational Quotes

Character

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

- Solon

Best Quotes about Character

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Jefferson, Thomas

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

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

Thoreau, Henry David

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

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

10.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

11.

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

12.

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

Mason, John L.

13.

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

14.

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

15.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

16.

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.

17.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

18.

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

19.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

20.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

21.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

22.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

23.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

24.

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

25.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Angelou, Maya

26.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

27.

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

Maritain, Jacques

28.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

29.

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.

30.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

32.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

33.

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

Peter The Great

34.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

35.

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

36.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

37.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

38.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

39.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

40.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

James, William

41.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

42.

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

43.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

44.

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

W. Somerset Maugham

45.

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

Brown, Les

46.

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

Collins, Marva

47.

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

48.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

49.

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

50.

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