Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Euripides

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

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.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

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

Solon

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

10.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

11.

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

Proverb, Chinese

12.

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

Taylor, Bayard

13.

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

14.

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.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

18.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

19.

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

Francis Thompson

20.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

21.

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.

22.

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

23.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

24.

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

25.

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

Freeman, Robert

26.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

27.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

28.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

James, William

29.

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

30.

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

Thurber, James

31.

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

32.

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

Chambers, Oswald

33.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt

34.

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.

35.

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.

36.

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

37.

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

Joan Didion

38.

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

Confucius

39.

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

Merikare

40.

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

Royal, Darrell

41.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

Angelou, Maya

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

49.