Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

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.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

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

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

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

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

Look, we're all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house --in the bedroom he's asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he's rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he's paying his taxes, in the yard he's raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he's making a bomb to blow it all up.

Miller, Arthur

10.

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

Voltaire

11.

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

Francis Thompson

12.

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

Proverb

13.

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

Chambers, Oswald

14.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

19.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

20.

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

21.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

22.

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

Howell, Harry

23.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

24.

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.

25.

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

26.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt

27.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

28.

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

Thackeray, William M.

29.

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.

30.

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

Reagan, Ronald

31.

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

32.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

33.

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.

Disraeli, Benjamin

34.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

35.

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

Michener, James A.

36.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

37.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

41.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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.

43.

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

44.

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

Angelou, Maya

45.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

46.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

47.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

48.

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

49.

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

Lippmann, Walter

50.

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

Thoreau, Henry David