Motivational Quotes

Character

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.

Best Quotes about Character

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

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

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

Thurber, James

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.

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

Baldwin, Faith

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

10.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

11.

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

Francis Thompson

12.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

16.

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

Proverb, Chinese

17.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

18.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

19.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

24.

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

25.

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

Bible

26.

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

27.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

28.

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

Voltaire

29.

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.

30.

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

31.

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

32.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Angelou, Maya

33.

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

Michener, James A.

34.

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

35.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

36.

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

Euripides

37.

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

38.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

39.

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

40.

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

Richter, Jean Paul

41.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

Seneca

43.

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

Taylor, Bayard

44.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

45.

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

46.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

47.

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

48.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

49.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

50.

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