Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Hay, Colin

Best Quotes about Character

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.

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

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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

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

Michener, James A.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

10.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

11.

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

12.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

13.

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

Buddha

14.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Goldsmith, Oliver

15.

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

16.

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

Lippmann, Walter

17.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

18.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

19.

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

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 is a victory, not a gift.

22.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

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

24.

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

Confucius

25.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

26.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

27.

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

28.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

29.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

31.

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

Mohammed

32.

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

33.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

34.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

38.

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.

39.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

40.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

41.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

42.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

43.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

44.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

45.

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.

46.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

47.

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

48.

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

Marie Leneru

49.

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

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