Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

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

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.

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

Aristotle

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Lippmann, Walter

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

10.

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

11.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

12.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

13.

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

14.

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

15.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

16.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

17.

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

18.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

19.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

20.

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

Thurber, James

21.

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

22.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

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.

24.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

27.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

28.

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.

29.

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

30.

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.

31.

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

Voltaire

32.

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

Shakespeare, William

33.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

34.

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

Hall, Manly

35.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

36.

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.

37.

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

38.

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

Mason, John L.

39.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

40.

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

Hermann Hesse

41.

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

42.

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.

43.

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

44.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

45.

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

Freeman, Robert

46.

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

47.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

48.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

49.

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

50.

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