Motivational Quotes

Character

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

- Aristotle

Best Quotes about Character

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

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

Hepburn, Katharine

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

Gill, Vince

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt

10.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

11.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

12.

To succeed is nothing -- it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Leneru, Marie

13.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

14.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

15.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

16.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

17.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

18.

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

Proverb, Chinese

19.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

20.

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

21.

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

Maritain, Jacques

22.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

23.

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

Shakespeare, William

24.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

25.

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

26.

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.

27.

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.

28.

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.

29.

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

30.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

31.

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

32.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

33.

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.

34.

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.

35.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

36.

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

Freeman, Robert

37.

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

Brown, Les

38.

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

39.

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.

40.

When about to commit a base deed, respect thyself, though there is no witness.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

41.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

42.

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

Mason, John L.

43.

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

Crisp, Quentin

44.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

45.

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

46.

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

47.

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

48.

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

49.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

50.

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

Chambers, Oswald