Motivational Quotes

Character

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

- Hume, David

Best Quotes about Character

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

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

Taylor, Bayard

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

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

Horace

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

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

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

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

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

Jefferson, Thomas

10.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

11.

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

12.

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

13.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

14.

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.

15.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

16.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

17.

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

Chambers, Oswald

18.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

19.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

20.

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

21.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

22.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

23.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

24.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

25.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

26.

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

27.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

28.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

29.

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

Joan Didion

30.

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

31.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

32.

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.

33.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

34.

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

35.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

36.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Angelou, Maya

41.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

42.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

43.

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