Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

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

Shakespeare, William

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

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

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

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

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

Brown, Les

10.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

11.

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

12.

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

13.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

14.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

15.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

16.

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

Estrange, L.

17.

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

18.

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

Confucius

19.

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

20.

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

James A. Froude

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Michener, James A.

24.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

25.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

26.

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.

27.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Confucius

28.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

29.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

30.

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.

31.

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.

32.

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

33.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

34.

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

Solon

35.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

36.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

37.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

38.

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

39.

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

Euripides

40.

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

Horace

41.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

42.

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

Voltaire

43.

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

Francis Thompson

44.

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

45.

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

Joan Didion

46.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

47.

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

Lippmann, Walter

48.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

49.

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

Angelou, Maya

50.

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

Mohammed