Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

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

Petrarch, Francesco

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

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

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

Elmer G. Letterman

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Lincoln, Abraham

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

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

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

Mohammed

11.

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.

12.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

13.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

14.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

15.

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

16.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

17.

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

18.

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

19.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

20.

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

21.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

22.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

23.

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.

24.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

25.

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

26.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

27.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

28.

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

Chambers, Oswald

29.

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

30.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

31.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

32.

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

33.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

34.

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

35.

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

Freeman, Robert

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.

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

Gill, Vince

38.

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

Collins, Marva

39.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

40.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

41.

When about to commit a base deed, respect thyself, though there is no witness.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

42.

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

43.

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

Leneru, Marie

44.

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

45.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

46.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

47.

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.

James, William

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.

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

50.

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

Euripides