Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Proverb, Chinese

Best Quotes about Character

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

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

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

James A. Froude

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

Angelou, Maya

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

10.

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

Bible

11.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

12.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

13.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

14.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

15.

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.

16.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

17.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

18.

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

19.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

20.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

21.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

26.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

27.

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

Hermann Hesse

28.

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

Freeman, Robert

29.

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

30.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

31.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

32.

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

33.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

34.

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

35.

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

Francis Thompson

36.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

37.

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

38.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

39.

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

Maritain, Jacques

40.

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

Solon

41.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

42.

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

43.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

44.

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.

45.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Howell, Harry

49.

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

Royal, Darrell

50.

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