Motivational Quotes

Character

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

- Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

Best Quotes about Character

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

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.

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

Hall, Manly

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

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.

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

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

10.

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

Shakespeare, William

11.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

12.

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

Leneru, Marie

13.

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

Euripides

14.

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.

15.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

20.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

21.

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

22.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

23.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

24.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

25.

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

Marie Leneru

26.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

27.

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

28.

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

Karr, Alphonse

29.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Brown, Les

33.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

34.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

35.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

36.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

37.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

38.

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

39.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

40.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

41.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

42.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

46.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

47.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

48.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

49.

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