Motivational Quotes

Character

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.

Best Quotes about Character

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

Lippmann, Walter

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

Thurber, James

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

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.

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

Taylor, Bayard

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

Chambers, Oswald

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

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

Michener, James A.

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

10.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

11.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

15.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

16.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

17.

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

18.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

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.

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

Francis Thompson

21.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

22.

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

James A. Froude

23.

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

Angelou, Maya

24.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

25.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

26.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

27.

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

Thackeray, William M.

28.

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

Aristotle

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Proverb

33.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

34.

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

Royal, Darrell

35.

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

36.

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.

37.

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

Maritain, Jacques

38.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

Trotsky, Leon

39.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

40.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

41.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

42.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

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.

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

Richter, Jean Paul

45.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

46.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

47.

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

48.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

49.

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

50.

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