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

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.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

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

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

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

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

Crisp, Quentin

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

Lincoln, Abraham

10.

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

11.

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

Greeley, Horace

12.

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

Karr, Alphonse

13.

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

Shakespeare, William

14.

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

15.

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

Elihu Burritt

16.

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

17.

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

Gill, Vince

18.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

19.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

20.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

21.

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

22.

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.

23.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

24.

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

Mason, John L.

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

Thomas, John M.

28.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

29.

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

30.

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

Voltaire

31.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

32.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

33.

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

Chambers, Oswald

34.

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

Collins, Marva

35.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

36.

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

37.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

38.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

39.

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

Angelou, Maya

40.

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

41.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

42.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

43.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

44.

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

45.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

46.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

47.

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

Francis Thompson

48.

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

49.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

50.

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