Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

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

Aristotle

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Freeman, Robert

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

10.

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

11.

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

12.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

13.

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

14.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

15.

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

16.

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.

17.

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.

18.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

19.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

20.

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

21.

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

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.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

24.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

25.

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

26.

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

Thomas, John M.

27.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

28.

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

29.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

30.

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

31.

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

32.

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

33.

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

Chambers, Oswald

34.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

35.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

36.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

37.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Baldwin, Faith

41.

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

Angelou, Maya

42.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

43.

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.

44.

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.

45.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

46.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

47.

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.

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Elihu Burritt