Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

Best Quotes about Character

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

Seneca

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards, himself his own dungeon.

Pandita, Saskya

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Reagan, Ronald

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

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

10.

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

Taylor, Bayard

11.

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.

12.

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

Solon

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

16.

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

17.

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.

18.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

19.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

Greeley, Horace

23.

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

Howell, Harry

24.

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

Leneru, Marie

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

27.

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

Thackeray, William M.

28.

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

29.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

30.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Brown, Les

34.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

35.

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

36.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

37.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

38.

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

Hall, Manly

39.

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

Thomas, John M.

40.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

41.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

Freeman, Robert

45.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

46.

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.

47.

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

48.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

49.

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

50.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John