Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Taylor, Bayard

Best Quotes about Character

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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

Joan Didion

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

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

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

Linall Jr. A. L.

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

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

10.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

11.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

12.

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

Freeman, Robert

13.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

14.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

15.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

16.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

17.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

18.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

19.

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

20.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

21.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

22.

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

Voltaire

23.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

24.

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

Angelou, Maya

25.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

26.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

27.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

28.

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

Guideposts

29.

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

Horace

30.

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

Karr, Alphonse

31.

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

Mohammed

32.

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

33.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

34.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

35.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

36.

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

37.

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

Howell, Harry

38.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

39.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

40.

You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm... you can not buy loyalty. You can not buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.

Francis, Clarence

41.

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

Confucius

42.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

43.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

44.

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

45.

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

Reagan, Ronald

46.

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

Maritain, Jacques

47.

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

48.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

49.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

50.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua