Motivational Quotes

Character

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

- Horace

Best Quotes about Character

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

Freeman, Robert

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

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

Leneru, Marie

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

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

10.

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

11.

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.

12.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

13.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

14.

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

15.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

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.

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.

18.

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

Aristotle

19.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

20.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

21.

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

Brown, Les

22.

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.

23.

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.

24.

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

Greeley, Horace

25.

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.

26.

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

27.

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

28.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

29.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

30.

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

31.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

32.

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

Thomas, John M.

33.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

34.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

38.

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

Hay, Colin

39.

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

James A. Froude

40.

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

41.

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

42.

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

43.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

44.

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

Shakespeare, William

45.

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

Hermann Hesse

46.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

47.

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.

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.

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

Marie Leneru

50.

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

Hepburn, Katharine