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

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

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

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

Mason, John L.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Boardman, George D.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

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

Elihu Burritt

10.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

15.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

16.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

17.

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

18.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

19.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

20.

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

Thurber, James

21.

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.

22.

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

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.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

25.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

26.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

27.

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

Joan Didion

28.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

29.

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Akhenaton

30.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

31.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

32.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

33.

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

Buddha

34.

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

35.

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

Solon

36.

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

37.

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

Confucius

38.

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

Hermann Hesse

39.

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.

40.

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

41.

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

Chambers, Oswald

42.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

43.

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

44.

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.

45.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

46.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

47.

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

Merikare

48.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

49.

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

50.

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

Shakespeare, William