Motivational Quotes

Character

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

- Abraham Lincoln

Best Quotes about Character

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.

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

Joan Didion

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

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

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

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

Petrarch, Francesco

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Gill, Vince

10.

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

Buddha

11.

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

Seneca

12.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

13.

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

14.

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

Francis Thompson

15.

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

Hermann Hesse

16.

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

17.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

18.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

19.

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

20.

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

21.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

22.

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

Thackeray, William M.

23.

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

Michener, James A.

24.

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.

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.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

27.

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

Solon

28.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

29.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

30.

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

31.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln

32.

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

33.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

37.

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

38.

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

Maritain, Jacques

39.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

40.

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

Proverb, Chinese

41.

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

Mason, John L.

42.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

43.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

44.

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.

45.

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

Collins, Marva

46.

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

Greeley, Horace

47.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

48.

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

Brown, Les

49.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

50.

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

Lincoln, Abraham