Motivational Quotes

Character

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

- Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

Best Quotes about Character

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

Merikare

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

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.

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.

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

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

Gill, Vince

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

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

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

10.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

11.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

12.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

13.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

14.

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

Angelou, Maya

15.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

16.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

17.

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

Thomas, John M.

18.

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

Elihu Burritt

19.

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

20.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

21.

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

Thurber, James

22.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

23.

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

Hall, Manly

24.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

25.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

26.

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

Confucius

27.

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

28.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

29.

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.

30.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

31.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

32.

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

Voltaire

33.

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

Solon

34.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

35.

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

Chambers, Oswald

36.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

37.

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

Collins, Marva

38.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

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.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

41.

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

42.

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

Seneca

43.

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

44.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

45.

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.

46.

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

Horace

47.

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

Shakespeare, William

48.

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.

49.

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

50.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon