Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Chesterfield, Lord

Best Quotes about Character

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

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.

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

Peter The Great

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

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

Hay, Colin

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

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

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

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

Howell, Harry

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Michener, James A.

14.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

15.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

16.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

17.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

18.

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

19.

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.

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.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

24.

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

25.

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

Mason, John L.

26.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

27.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

28.

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

Hall, Manly

29.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

30.

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Karr, Alphonse

34.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

35.

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.

36.

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

37.

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

Proverb

38.

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

39.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

40.

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

41.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

42.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

43.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

44.

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

45.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

46.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

47.

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

Freeman, Robert

48.

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