Motivational Quotes

Character

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

- Washington, Booker T.

Best Quotes about Character

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

Peter The Great

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

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

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

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

Brown, Les

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

Thoreau, Henry David

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

Howell, Harry

10.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

11.

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

12.

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

Joan Didion

13.

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

14.

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.

15.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

16.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

17.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

18.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

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.

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

21.

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

22.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

23.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

24.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

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

Reagan, Ronald

27.

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

Thurber, James

28.

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

James A. Froude

29.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Lippmann, Walter

30.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

34.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

35.

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

Baldwin, Faith

36.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

37.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

38.

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

39.

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

40.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

41.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

42.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

43.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

44.

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.

45.

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.

46.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

47.

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

Thackeray, William M.

48.

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

49.

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

Maritain, Jacques

50.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von