Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Freeman, Robert

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

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

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

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

10.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

11.

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.

12.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

13.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

14.

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

Solon

15.

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

Marie Leneru

16.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

17.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

Peter The Great

21.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

22.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

24.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

25.

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

Proverb

26.

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

27.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

28.

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

29.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

30.

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

Angelou, Maya

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Guideposts

34.

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

Hay, Colin

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Howell, Harry

38.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

39.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

40.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

44.

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

Taylor, Bayard

45.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

46.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

47.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

48.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

49.

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

50.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell