Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

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

Bible

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

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

Hay, Colin

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

Horace

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

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

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

10.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

11.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

12.

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

13.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

14.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

15.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

16.

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

17.

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

18.

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

19.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

20.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

21.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

22.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

23.

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

Mason, John L.

24.

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

25.

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

26.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

27.

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

28.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

29.

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

Hermann Hesse

30.

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

31.

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

Michener, James A.

32.

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.

33.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

34.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

35.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

36.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

37.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

38.

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.

39.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

40.

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

Buddha

41.

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

Royal, Darrell

42.

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

Angelou, Maya

43.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

44.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

45.

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.

46.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

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.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

49.

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

50.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman