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

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.

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

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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

Freeman, Robert

10.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

11.

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

Solon

12.

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

Proverb, Chinese

13.

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

14.

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

Chambers, Oswald

15.

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

Proverb

16.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

17.

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

18.

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

Proverb

19.

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

Lippmann, Walter

20.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

21.

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

22.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

23.

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

Taylor, Bayard

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

27.

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

28.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

29.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

30.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

31.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

32.

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

Thurber, James

33.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

34.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

38.

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

Mason, John L.

39.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

40.

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

Voltaire

41.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

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.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

44.

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.

45.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

46.

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

47.

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

Greeley, Horace

48.

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