Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Hermann Hesse

Best Quotes about Character

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

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

Aristotle

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

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

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

10.

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

11.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

12.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

13.

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

Freeman, Robert

14.

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

15.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

19.

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

James A. Froude

20.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

21.

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

Lippmann, Walter

22.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

23.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

24.

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

Greeley, Horace

25.

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

26.

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.

27.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

28.

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.

29.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

30.

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.

31.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

32.

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

33.

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

34.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

35.

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards, himself his own dungeon.

Pandita, Saskya

36.

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.

37.

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

38.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

39.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

40.

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

Thurber, James

41.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

42.

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

43.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

44.

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

45.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Keller, Helen

46.

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

47.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

48.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

49.

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