Motivational Quotes

Character

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

- Cicero, Marcus T.

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Petrarch, Francesco

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

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

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.

James, William

When about to commit a base deed, respect thyself, though there is no witness.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

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

Thoreau, Henry David

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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

Chambers, Oswald

10.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

11.

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

Angelou, Maya

12.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

13.

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

Buddha

14.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

15.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

16.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

17.

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.

18.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

19.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

20.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

21.

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

22.

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

Hall, Manly

23.

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

Seneca

24.

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

Greeley, Horace

25.

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

26.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

27.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

28.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

29.

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

30.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

31.

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

32.

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

Horace

33.

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

34.

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

Shakespeare, William

35.

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

Marie Leneru

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

39.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

40.

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

Linall Jr. A. L.

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

44.

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

45.

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

Bible

46.

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

47.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

48.

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