Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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.

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

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.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

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

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

Thackeray, William M.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

James, William

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

10.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

11.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

12.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

13.

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

Mason, John L.

14.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

15.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

16.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

17.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

18.

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.

19.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

20.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

21.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

22.

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

Lippmann, Walter

23.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

24.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

25.

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

26.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

27.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

28.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

29.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

30.

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

31.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

32.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

Taylor, Bayard

36.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

37.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

38.

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

39.

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

Confucius

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

43.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Goldsmith, Oliver

44.

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

Chambers, Oswald

45.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Aristotle

49.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

50.

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