Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Disraeli, Benjamin

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

Maritain, Jacques

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

10.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

11.

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.

12.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

13.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

14.

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

Hay, Colin

15.

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.

16.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

17.

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

Horace

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.

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

20.

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.

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.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Euripides

26.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

28.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

29.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

30.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

31.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

32.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

33.

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

Thurber, James

34.

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

35.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

36.

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.

37.

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

Seneca

38.

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

Solon

39.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

40.

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