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

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

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

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

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

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

Voltaire

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

Estrange, L.

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

10.

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

11.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

12.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

13.

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

Maritain, Jacques

14.

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

15.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

16.

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

17.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

18.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

19.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

20.

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

Mason, John L.

21.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.

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

Euripides

23.

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

Solon

24.

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

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

27.

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

28.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Cicero, Marcus T.

29.

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

30.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

31.

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

Francis Thompson

32.

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

33.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

34.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

35.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

36.

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.

37.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

38.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

39.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

43.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

44.

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

45.

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.

46.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

47.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

48.

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

49.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

50.

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