Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Jefferson, Thomas

Best Quotes about Character

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

Elmer G. Letterman

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

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

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

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

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

Shakespeare, William

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

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

Greeley, Horace

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.

10.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

11.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

15.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

16.

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

17.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

18.

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

Mason, John L.

19.

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

Seneca

20.

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

21.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.

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

23.

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

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.

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

Hay, Colin

26.

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

Hall, Manly

27.

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

28.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

29.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

30.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

32.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

33.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

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.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

36.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

37.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

38.

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

39.

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

Horace

40.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

41.

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

42.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

43.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

44.

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

Baldwin, Faith

45.

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

46.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

47.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

48.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

49.

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.

50.

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

Lippmann, Walter