Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Lois McMaster Bujold

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

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.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

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

Leneru, Marie

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

10.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

11.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

12.

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

13.

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.

14.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

15.

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

16.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

17.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

18.

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.

19.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

20.

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.

21.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

22.

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

Joan Didion

23.

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

Voltaire

24.

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

25.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

26.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character -- putting together all their yesterdays -- and averaging them -- we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is the silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

27.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

28.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

29.

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

30.

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

Hermann Hesse

31.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

32.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

33.

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

34.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

35.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

36.

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

Seneca

37.

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

38.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

39.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

40.

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

41.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

43.

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

Angelou, Maya

44.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

45.

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.

46.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

47.

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

Proverb, Chinese

48.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

49.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold