Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Karr, Alphonse

Best Quotes about Character

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

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

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

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

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

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

Greeley, Horace

10.

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

Voltaire

11.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

12.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

13.

Look, we're all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house --in the bedroom he's asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he's rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he's paying his taxes, in the yard he's raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he's making a bomb to blow it all up.

Miller, Arthur

14.

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Jefferson, Thomas

15.

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

Thackeray, William M.

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

Collins, Marva

20.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

24.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

25.

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

26.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

27.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

28.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

29.

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

Lippmann, Walter

30.

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

Marie Leneru

31.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

32.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

33.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

34.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

35.

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

Joan Didion

36.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

37.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

38.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

39.

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

40.

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

41.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

42.

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.

43.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

44.

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

Mason, John L.

45.

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.

46.

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

Buddha

47.

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

Hermann Hesse

48.

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

49.

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

Chambers, Oswald