Motivational Quotes

Character

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.

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

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

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

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

Freeman, Robert

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

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.

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

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

10.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

11.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

12.

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

13.

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.

14.

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

15.

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

16.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

17.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

18.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

19.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

20.

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

Reagan, Ronald

21.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

22.

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

23.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

24.

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

25.

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

Proverb

26.

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

27.

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

Peter The Great

28.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

29.

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

30.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

31.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

32.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

33.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

34.

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

35.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

36.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

37.

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

38.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

39.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

40.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

41.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.