Motivational Quotes

Character

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

- Hill, Napoleon

Best Quotes about Character

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

Proverb

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

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

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

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

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

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

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

Gill, Vince

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

Hermann Hesse

10.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

11.

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

Voltaire

12.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

13.

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

14.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

15.

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

Angelou, Maya

16.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

17.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

18.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

19.

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

20.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

21.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

26.

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

Greeley, Horace

27.

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

28.

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

Leneru, Marie

29.

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

30.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

31.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

32.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

33.

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

34.

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

35.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

36.

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

37.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

38.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

39.

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.

40.

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

41.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

42.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

43.

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

Thomas, John M.

44.

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

45.

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

46.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

47.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

48.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

49.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

50.

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.