Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Aquinas, St. Thomas

Best Quotes about Character

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

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

Hermann Hesse

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

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

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Estrange, L.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

10.

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

Shakespeare, William

11.

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.

12.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

13.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

14.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

15.

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

16.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

17.

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.

18.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

19.

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

20.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

21.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

22.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

23.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

24.

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

25.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

26.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

27.

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.

28.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

29.

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

30.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

31.

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

Hay, Colin

32.

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

Solon

33.

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

34.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

35.

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

36.

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

Peter The Great

37.

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

38.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

39.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

40.

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

Mohammed

41.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

Angelou, Maya

45.

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

Proverb

46.

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.

47.

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

Michener, James A.

48.

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

49.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

50.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.