Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Joan Didion

Best Quotes about Character

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Hay, Colin

Character is a victory, not a gift.

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

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

10.

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.

11.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

12.

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

Taylor, Bayard

13.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

14.

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.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Voltaire

18.

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

19.

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

Proverb

20.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

21.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

23.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

24.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

25.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

26.

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.

27.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

28.

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

Shakespeare, William

29.

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

30.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

31.

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

Marie Leneru

32.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

33.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

34.

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

35.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

36.

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

Gill, Vince

37.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

38.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

39.

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

Solon

40.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

41.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

42.

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

43.

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

Karr, Alphonse

44.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

45.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character -- putting together all their yesterdays -- and averaging them -- we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is the silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

46.

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

47.

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

Angelou, Maya

48.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

49.

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

Collins, Marva

50.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.