Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Best Quotes about Character

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

Maritain, Jacques

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

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

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

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

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

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

Angelou, Maya

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

17.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

18.

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.

19.

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

Lippmann, Walter

20.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

21.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

22.

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

Euripides

23.

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

Thurber, James

24.

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

Aristotle

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

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

Karr, Alphonse

27.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

28.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

29.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

30.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

31.

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

Mohammed

32.

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

Merikare

33.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

34.

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

Proverb

35.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

36.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

37.

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

James A. Froude

38.

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

39.

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

Hermann Hesse

40.

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

Crisp, Quentin

41.

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

Peter The Great

42.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

43.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

44.

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.

45.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

46.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

47.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

48.

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

49.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

50.

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

Joan Didion