Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

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.

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

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.

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

Hall, Manly

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

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

Greeley, Horace

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Lippmann, Walter

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

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

Thackeray, William M.

11.

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

12.

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

13.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

14.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

15.

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.

16.

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

17.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

18.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

19.

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

20.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

21.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

22.

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

Gill, Vince

23.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

24.

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

25.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

26.

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

Crisp, Quentin

27.

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

28.

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

29.

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

30.

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

31.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

32.

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

33.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

34.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

35.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

36.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

37.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

38.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

39.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

40.

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

41.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

42.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

43.

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

44.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

45.

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

46.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

47.

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

48.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

49.

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

50.

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

Reagan, Ronald