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

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

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

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

Merikare

Character is a victory, not a gift.

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

Baldwin, Faith

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

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.

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

Thomas, John M.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Solon

14.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

15.

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

Linall Jr. A. L.

16.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

17.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

18.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

19.

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

20.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

21.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.

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

23.

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

24.

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

Maritain, Jacques

25.

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.

26.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

27.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

28.

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.

29.

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

Taylor, Bayard

30.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

31.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

32.

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

Shakespeare, William

33.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

34.

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.

35.

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

Confucius

36.

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

37.

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

Collins, Marva

38.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

39.

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.

40.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

41.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

43.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

44.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

45.

For character too is a process and an unfolding... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

Eliot, George

46.

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

47.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

48.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

49.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

50.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt