Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Thoreau, Henry David

Best Quotes about Character

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

Look, we're all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house --in the bedroom he's asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he's rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he's paying his taxes, in the yard he's raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he's making a bomb to blow it all up.

Miller, Arthur

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

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

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

Hall, Manly

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

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

Marden, Orison Swett

10.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

11.

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

12.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

13.

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

14.

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

Collins, Marva

15.

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

16.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

17.

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.

18.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

19.

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

20.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

21.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

22.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

23.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

24.

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

25.

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

James A. Froude

26.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

27.

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

28.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

29.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

30.

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

Estrange, L.

31.

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

Horace

32.

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

33.

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.

34.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

35.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

36.

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

Greeley, Horace

37.

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

38.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

39.

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

40.

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.

41.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

45.

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

46.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

47.

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

Reagan, Ronald

48.

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

49.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

50.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.