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

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

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

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

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

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

Angelou, Maya

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

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

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

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

10.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

11.

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

Guideposts

12.

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

Michener, James A.

13.

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.

14.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

15.

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

Reagan, Ronald

16.

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

Gill, Vince

17.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

18.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

19.

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

20.

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

Buddha

21.

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

22.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

27.

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

Leneru, Marie

28.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

29.

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

Maritain, Jacques

30.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

34.

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

35.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

36.

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.

37.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

38.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

39.

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

Solon

40.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

41.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

42.

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

43.

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

Karr, Alphonse

44.

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

Joan Didion

45.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

46.

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

47.

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.

48.

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

49.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Hepburn, Katharine

50.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson