Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Hermann Hesse

Best Quotes about Character

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

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

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

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

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

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

10.

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

11.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

12.

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

13.

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

14.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

Thoreau, Henry David

15.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

16.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

17.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

18.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

19.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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.

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

Lippmann, Walter

22.

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

Proverb

23.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

24.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

25.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

King Jr. Martin Luther

26.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

27.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

28.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

29.

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.

30.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

31.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Confucius

32.

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

Joan Didion

33.

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.

34.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

35.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

36.

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

37.

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

Richter, Jean Paul

38.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

39.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

40.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

41.

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

42.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

43.

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

Shakespeare, William

44.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

45.

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

46.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

47.

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

Crisp, Quentin

48.

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

Gill, Vince

49.

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

50.

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