Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Reagan, Ronald

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

Proverb

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.

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

Michener, James A.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Akhenaton

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

Karr, Alphonse

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

Confucius

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

10.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

11.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

12.

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

13.

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

Taylor, Bayard

14.

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

15.

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

16.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

17.

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

18.

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

Howell, Harry

19.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

20.

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

W. Somerset Maugham

21.

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

Mason, John L.

22.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

24.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

25.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

26.

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

Chambers, Oswald

27.

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

Bible

28.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

29.

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

30.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

31.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

32.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

33.

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

34.

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

Shakespeare, William

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

38.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

39.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

40.

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

41.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

45.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

46.

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

Estrange, L.

47.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

48.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

49.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

50.

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