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

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

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

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

Frankfurter, Felix

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

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

Taylor, Bayard

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

Chesterfield, Lord

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

10.

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

James A. Froude

11.

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

Michener, James A.

12.

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

13.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

14.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

15.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

16.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

17.

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

18.

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

Thomas, John M.

19.

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

20.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

21.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

26.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

27.

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.

28.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

29.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

30.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

31.

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

Lippmann, Walter

32.

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

33.

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.

34.

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

Leneru, Marie

35.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

36.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

37.

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.

38.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

39.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

40.

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

41.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

42.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

43.

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

44.

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

45.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

46.

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.

47.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

48.

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.

49.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

50.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant