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

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

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Greeley, Horace

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

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

10.

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

Euripides

11.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Collins, Marva

18.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

19.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

20.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

21.

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

Francis Thompson

22.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

23.

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

24.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

25.

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

26.

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

Peter The Great

27.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Wooden, John

28.

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

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

32.

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

33.

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

Hall, Manly

34.

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

35.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

36.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

37.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

38.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

39.

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

Crisp, Quentin

40.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

41.

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

42.

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

Buddha

43.

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

Voltaire

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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

47.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

48.

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

49.

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.

50.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese