Motivational Quotes

Character

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

- Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

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

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.

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

Proverb, Chinese

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

11.

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

Francis Thompson

12.

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

Freeman, Robert

13.

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

Gill, Vince

14.

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

15.

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

Estrange, L.

16.

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

17.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

18.

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

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.

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

Mason, John L.

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

24.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

25.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

26.

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

Maritain, Jacques

27.

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

28.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

29.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

30.

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.

Pandita, Saskya

31.

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

32.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

33.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

34.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

35.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

36.

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

37.

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

38.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

39.

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

Marie Leneru

40.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

41.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

42.

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

43.

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

Baldwin, Faith

44.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

45.

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

46.

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

47.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

48.

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

49.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

50.

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

Taylor, Bayard