Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Maritain, Jacques

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

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

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

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

10.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

11.

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

Solon

12.

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

13.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

14.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

15.

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

16.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

17.

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

18.

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

19.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

20.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

21.

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

22.

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

Greeley, Horace

23.

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

Peter The Great

24.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

Freeman, Robert

29.

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

30.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

31.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

32.

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

33.

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

34.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

35.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Hepburn, Katharine

36.

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

Michener, James A.

37.

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

38.

You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm... you can not buy loyalty. You can not buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.

Francis, Clarence

39.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

40.

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

Horace

41.

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

Francis Thompson

42.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

43.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

44.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

45.

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

46.

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

Estrange, L.

47.

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Boardman, George D.

48.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

49.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

50.

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