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

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

Seneca

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.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

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

Voltaire

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

Richter, Jean Paul

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

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

Lincoln, Abraham

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

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

Brown, Les

10.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

11.

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

Peter The Great

12.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

13.

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

14.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

15.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

16.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

17.

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

18.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

19.

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

20.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

21.

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

Thurber, James

22.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

23.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

24.

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

25.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

26.

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

27.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

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.

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

Karr, Alphonse

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

33.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

34.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

35.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

36.

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

Leneru, Marie

37.

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.

38.

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

Reagan, Ronald

39.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

40.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

41.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

42.

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

43.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

44.

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

45.

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

Bible

46.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

47.

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

Proverb, Chinese

48.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

49.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

50.

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