Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Lippmann, Walter

Best Quotes about Character

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

Lincoln, Abraham

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

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

Richter, Jean Paul

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

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

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

Thackeray, William M.

10.

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

Aristotle

11.

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.

12.

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

13.

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

Confucius

14.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

15.

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

16.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

17.

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

18.

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

Proverb, Chinese

19.

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

Maritain, Jacques

20.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

21.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

22.

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

Peter The Great

23.

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.

24.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

25.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

26.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

27.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

28.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

29.

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

Taylor, Bayard

30.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

31.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

32.

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

Gill, Vince

33.

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

Royal, Darrell

34.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

35.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

36.

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

37.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

38.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

39.

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

Chambers, Oswald

40.

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

41.

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

Guideposts

43.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

44.

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

45.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

46.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Cicero, Marcus T.

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.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

49.

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

Brown, Les

50.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero